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SPEECHES AT THE 
LOTOS CLUB 



ARRANGED BY 

JOHN ELDERKIN 
CHESTER S. LORD HORATIO N. ERASER 




NEW YORK 

PRIVATELY PRINTED 

MCMI 



T5U7 



THE LIBRARV u" 
CONGRESS, 

t Two Copies Received 

MAY. 22 1901 

Copyright entry 

dLASS CC XXc. N9. 

COPY S. 



CopyrigM, 1901, by 
The Lotos Club 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Introduction xix 

Charles Kingsley 1 

At the dinner in Hs honor, February 15, 1872 

James Anthony Froude 5 

At the dinner in his honor, October 12, 1872 

WiLKiE Collins 7 

At the dinner in his honor, September 27, 1873 

Lord Houghton (Richard Monckton Milnes) . 9 

At the dinner in his honor, November 21, 1875 

Bayard Taylor 13 

At the dinner to Lord Honghton, November 21, 1875 

Edmund Yates 16 

At the dinner rii his honor, March 8, 1877 

John Gilbert 19 

At the dinner in his honor, November 30, 1878 

William Winter 22 

At the dinner to John Gilbert, November 30, 1878 

William S. Gilbert 26 

At the dinner to William S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, Novem- 
ber 9, 1879 

Horace Porter 29 

At the dinner to Charles G. Leland, February 1, 1880 
ix 



X CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Whitelaw Reid, President of the Club ... 33 

At the decennial dinner, March 28, 1880 

William M. Evarts 36 

At the decennial dinner, March 28, 1880 

Alexander E. Macdonald 40 

At the decennial dinner, March 28, 1880 

Whitelaw Reid 45 

At the reception to Thomas Hughes, October 30, 1880 

Thomas Hughes 48 

At the reception in his honor, October 30, 1880 

Ulysses S. Grant 50 

At the dinner in his honor, November 20, 1880 

Whitelaw Reid 52 

At the dinner in his honor, December 3, 1881 

Horace Porter 56 

At the dinner to Whitelaw Reid, December 3, 1881 

Oliver Wendell Holmes 61 

At an informal reunion, April 14, 1883 

William M. Evarts 65 

At the dinner in his honor, February 21, 1885 

Henry M. Stanley . . . ' . . . . 68 

At the dinner in his honor, November 27, 1886 

Whitelaw Reid 77 

At the dinner in his honor, April 27, 1889 

Sir Edwin Arnold 81 

At the dinner in his honor, October 31, 1891 

Abram S. Hewitt 90 

At the dinner to Whitelaw Reid, upon his retirement from of&ce 
as Minister to France, April 30, 1892 

William H. McElroy . . . . . . 94 

At the dinner to Whitelaw Reid, April 30, 1892 



CONTENTS xi 

PAGE 

Abram S. Hewitt 96 

At the dinner to the Mayor of the City, William L. Strong, Jan- 
uary 12, 1895 

Robert G, Ingersoll 99 

At the dinner to Anton Seidl, February 2, 1895 

William Henry White 108 

At the dinner to Anton Seidl, February 2, 1895 

Almon Goodwin Ill 

At the dinner to Anton Seidl, February 2, 1895 

Frank R. Lawrence, President of the Club . . 114 

Upon its twenty-fifth anniversary, March 30, 1895 

Joseph C. Hendrix 119 

At the twenty-fifth anniversary dinner, March 30, 1895 

Sir Henry Irving 122 

At the dinner in his honor, November 16, 1895 

William Henry White 124 

At the dinner to Sir Henry Irving, November 16, 1895 

Parke Godwin 127 

At the dinner to Jean and Edouard de Reszke, December 21, 1895 

Charles A. Dana 130 

At the dinner in his honor, January 16, 1896 

Horace Porter 132 

At the dinner to Charles A. Dana, January 16, 1896 

Charles A. Dana 136 

In reply to Horace Porter, January 16, 1896 

Elihu Root 137 

At the dinner to Charles A. Dana, January 16, 1896 

Chauncey M. Depew 140 

At the dinner in his honor, February 22, 1896 

Seth Low 152 

At the dinner to Chauncey M. Depew, February 22, 1896 



xii CONTENTS 

PAGE 

EoswELL P. Flower 156 

At the dinner to Chauneey M. Depew, February 22, 1896 

Joseph Jefferson 158 

At the dinner in his honor, April 4, 1896 

Parke Godwin 163 

At the dinner to Joseph Jefferson, April 4, 1896 

Henry van Dyke 170 

At the dinner to Joseph Jefferson, April 4, 1896 

John A. Taylor 173 

At the dinner to Joseph Jefferson, April 4, 1896 

Simeon Ford 176 

At the dinner to Joseph Jefferson, April 4, 1896 

Joseph Jefferson 180 

At the dinner in his honor, April 4, 1896 (Closing Speech) 

John Watson (Ian Maclaren) 182 

At the dinner in his honor, December 5, 1896 

William Winter . . . . . . . 190 

At the dinner to John Watson, December 6, 1896 

Horace Porter 200 

At the dinner in his honor, January 9, 1897 

Henry van Dyke 205 

At the dinner to Horace Porter, January 9, 1897 

Charles Emory Smith 209 

At the dinner to Horace Porter, January 9, 1897 

Stewart L. Woodford 213 

At the dinner to Horace Porter, January 9, 1897 

William Winter 215 

At the dinner in his honor, April 24, 1897 

Anthony Hope Hawkins (Anthony Hope) . . 226 

At the dinner in his honor, October 23, 1897 



CONTENTS xiii 

PAGE 

W. BOURKE COCKRAN 229 

At tlie dinner to Anthony Hope Hawkins, October 23, 1897 

John S. Wise 239 

At the dirner to Anthony Hope Hawkins, October 23, 1897 

Elihu Eoot 242 

At the dinner to Anthony Hope Hawkins, October 23, 1897 

Charles H. Van Brunt 245 

At the dinner in his honor, December 4, 1897 

Joseph H. Choate 247 

At the dinner to Presiding Justice Van Brunt, December 4, 1897 

Morgan J. O'Brien 253 

At the dinner to Presiding Justice Van Brunt, December 4, 1897 

Frank R. Lawrence 255 

At the dinner to Lord HerscheU, November 5, 1898 

Lord Herschell 258 

At the dinner in his honor, November 5, 1898 

W. BoURKE COOKRAN 264 

At the dinner to Lord Herschell, November 5, 1898 

Seth Low 274 

At the dinner to Lord Herschell, November 5, 1898 

Frank R. Lawrence 279 

At the dinner to Rear -Admiral Schley, November 26, 1898 

Winpield Scott Schley 284 

At the dinner in his honor, November 26, 1898 

Henry C. Potter 294 

At the dinner to Rear -Admiral Schley, November 26, 1898 

Wallace F. Randolph 297 

At the dinner to Rear- Admiral Schley, November 26, 1898 

Robert G-. Ingersoll 302 

At the dinner to Rear- Admiral Schley, November 26, 1898 



xiv CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Whitelaw Reid 309 

At the dinner in Ms honor, February 11, 1899 

St. Clatr McKelway 315 

At the dinner to Whitelaw Reid, Fehruary 11, 1899 

Cbatjncey M. Depew 320 

At the dinner in his honor, March 11, 1899 

Theodore Roosevelt 328 

At the dinner to Chauneey M. Depew, March 11, 1899 

George H. Daniels 333 

At the dinner to Chauneey M. Depew, March 11, 1899 

Sir Henry Irving 335 

At the dinner in his honor, October 28, 1899 

David H. Greer 338 

At the dinner to Sir Henry Irving, October 28, 1899 

Charles William Stubbs 341 

At the dinner to Sir Henry Irving, October 28, 1899 

Edward C. James 346 

At the dinner to Sir Henry Irving, October 28, 1899 

Andrew Carnegie 351 

At the dinner in his honor, January 27, 1900 

Robert S. MacArthur 357 

At the dinner to Andrew Carnegie, January 27, 1900 

WiLLLO^ H. McElroy .363 

At the dinner to Andrew Carnegie, January 27, 1900 

Walter S. Logan 366 

At the dinner to Andrew Carnegie, January 27, 1900 

Frank R. Lawrence 369 

At the dinner to Samuel L. Clemens, November 11, 1893 

Frank R. Lawrence . . . . . . 371 

At the dinner to Samuel L. Clemens, November 10, 1900 



CONTENTS XV 

PAGE 

Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) . . . . 374 

At the dinner in his honor, November 10, 1900 

Thomas B. Reed 380 

At the dinner to Samuel L. Clemens, November 10, 1900 

Chauncey M. Depew 385 

At the dinner to Samuel L. Clemens, November 10, 1900 

WiLLLAM Dean Howells 394 

At the dinner to Samuel L. Clemens, November 10, 1900 

St. Clair McKelway 397 

At the dinner to Samuel L. Clemens, November 10, 1900 

Wu Ting Fang 402 

At the dinner in his honor, December 15, 1900 

Wayne McVeagh 408 

At the dinner to Wu Ting Fang, December 15, 1900 

Frank E. Lawrence 413 

At the Yuletide dinner, January 5, 1901 



LIST OF PLATES 



Frank E. Lawrence Frontispiece 

Whitelaw Eeid Facing page 34 



^^ 



Horace Porter . . 
Chester S. Lord . . 
William Henry White 
Chauncey M. Depew . 
Joseph Jefferson . . 
w. bourke cockran 
Charles H. Van Brunt 
Morgan J. O'Brien . 
Robert G-. Ingersoll 
Andrew Carnegie 
Group 



58 
80 
108 
140 
180 
230 
244 
252 
302 
352 
374 



Seated on Sofa (left to right): 

Thomas B. Reed 
Fkank R. Lawrence 
Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) 
Chauncey M. Depew 

Seated (extreme left): 
Isaac N. Seligman 



Seated (extreme right): 
Thomas Bailey Aldrich 



Standing (left to right): 

John Kendrick Bangs 
MoNCURE D. Conway 
William Dean Howells 
a. f. southerland 
St. Clair McKelway 
William Henry White 
John Elderkin 
William T. Evans 
William Wallace Walker 
David B. Sickels 
George H. Daniels 
Horatio N. Fraser 



INTRODUCTION 

SINCE its organization in 1870 the Lotos Club has 
been known and distinguished by the practice of 
hospitality. The small parlors of its first house, No. 2 
Irving Place, were the scene of frequent gatherings 
for the reception and entertainment of men of distinc- 
tion. These gatherings, whether they took the form 
of reception or dinner, were enlivened by music, song, 
and speech-making. There were many actors, artists, 
journalists, and public men among the habitual atten- 
dants of the club who took an active part in its affairs, 
and the entertainments grew in importance until the 
finest music and the best after-dinner speaking were 
often to be heard there. Men of letters were the guests 
especially sought out to honor, although visiting artists 
and musicians were frequently entertained. The Lotos 
has done a gracious and important service in greeting 
eminent foreigners and bringing them in contact with 
prominent Americans and those of congenial tastes. 

The club owes to its literary and artistic member- 
ship much of its freedom from artificial distinctions. 
The primary questions in regard to the guest of honor 
have been, What has he done ? What can he do ? As 
was said by Wayne McVeagh at one of the late din- 
ners in the present house, '^In this club nobody stands 
upon anything except that on which Disraeli stood 

xix 



XX INTRODUCTION 

with pride when he stood for Parliament— on his 
head." Nothing extraneous avails one who rises to 
speak at the Lotos table; he must then show himself 
to be capable of original thought and feeling, or he is 
a lost man. Not that the members are unduly critical 
or exacting, but that a wholesome, manly, personal con- 
tribution of something apposite to the occasion is im- 
perative. 

On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the formation of 
the Lotos it was deemed appropriate to issue a small 
volume containing a brief history of the club, with 
short selections from the after-dinner speeches. That 
publication, which gave mere fragments of the feast of 
good things, has proved so popular as to excite a desire 
for a larger book, in which the best speeches should be 
given, with only such unimportant excisions as the lapse 
of time and the requirements of a volume for perma- 
nent record rendered necessary. 

In the choice of speeches for this volume the editors 
have by no means exhausted the supply. Long pe- 
riods in the life of the club have been passed over with- 
out a contribution. This is in a measure due to the 
fact that it was not until 1895 that systematic steno- 
graphic reports were made of the speaking at the din- 
ners. Only such fragmentary reports of the earlier 
speeches as appeared in the daily newspapers and were 
preserved in scrap-books were available for the pur- 
pose of this compilation. While much has been omitted 
that might well have found a place, it was thought 
better to give preference, in making up the principal 
part of the volume, to authoritative reports of what 
was actually said. 



INTRODUCTION xxi 

In choosing its presidents the Lotos Club has been 
remarkably conservative. Whitelaw Reid filled the 
place for fourteen years, and Frank R. Lawrence, who 
succeeded him, has served continuously for twelve 
years, and is about to enter on a thirteenth term ; thus 
these two presiding officers are identified with nearly 
all its public functions; indeed with all that are men- 
tioned in this book. 

In the preparation of the speeches for the press, 
some of them have been submitted to the authors for 
correction, but in many cases this was not feasible. 
It seemed advisable to print all of them as nearly as 
possible exactly as they had been delivered, so as to 
preserve the freedom and spontaneity of the original 
utterance. 

An after-dinner speech is not to be judged by the 
canons which are applied to elaborate orations; it is 
rather to be regarded as the play of intellect and imagi- 
nation under the influence of good-fellowship and keen 
appreciation. While not altogether unpremeditated in 
substance, it is often in form and allusion, in what is 
most characteristic and telling, the offspring and im- 
provisation of the moment of delivery. All recipes 
for after-dinner speech-making, even the excellent one 
imputed to James Russell Lowell by Dean Stubbs when 
Sir Henry Irving was a guest, are merely crutches, of 
little use to halting speakers. This view of the subject 
has governed in the selection and editing of matter for 
the present book. 

If the prosperity of a jest resides as much in the ear 
of the listener as in the tongue of the maker of it, then 
surely the speakers at the Lotos dinners have been 



xxii INTRODUCTION 

favored with a highly responsive body of co-laborers. 
The club has furnished an educated, and indeed a pro- 
fessional, audience. The membership from the begin- 
ning has been largely of journalists, artists, authors, ac- 
tors, physicians, lawyers, and business men of the most 
intellectual and vigorous type, composing an audience 
of successful men in the various callings of professional 
and commercial life ; an audience which has embraced 
young, middle-aged, and old men, although the pro- 
portion of the last is possibly greater now than in the 
earlier years of the club 's existence. How much of the 
splendid success of the banquets at the Lotos, and of 
the inexhaustible gaiety which has characterized them, 
is due to this trained, sympathetic, and brilliant audi- 
ence, and how much to the orators, this reproduction 
in a printed book of the speeches which seemed so good 
when delivered will now disclose. 



SPEECHES AT THE 
LOTOS CLUB 



" To you, my hearers, fortunate children of the Lotos 
flower, within the twenty-six years of your club life 
has fallen the golden opportunity of personal com- 
munion with some of the foremost men, whether of 
action or of thought, who have arisen to guide and 
illumine the age : Froude, who so royally depicted 
the pageantry and pathos of the Past ; Grant, who 
so superbly led the warrior legions of the Present ; 
Charles Kingsley, with his deep and touching voice 
of humanity ; Wilkie Collins, with his magic wand 
of mystery and his weird note of romance ; Oliver 
Wendell Holmes, the modern Theocritus, the most 
comforting of philosophers ; Mark Twain, true and 
tender heart, and first humorist of the age ; and 
Henry Irving, noble gentleman and prince of 
actors. Those bright names, and many more, will 
rise in your glad remembrance ; and I know you will 
agree that, in every case, when the generous mind 
pays its homage to the worth of a great man, the im- 
pulse is not that of adulation, but that of gi'atitude." 
William Winter, at the dinner to Ian Maelaren, Dec. 6, 1896. 



CHAELES KINaSLEY 

AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, FEBRUARY 15, 1872 

I AM not accustomed to such kind words. Kind deeds 
I am accustomed to in every part of the world. 
Wherever I go I find plenty of kind people— I believe 
the world is full of kind souls if one will be a little 
kind one's self, and therefore take the small trouble 
of finding them out. But, really, such kind words and 
kind deeds as I have met with from Americans at home 
and since I have been here I did not expect. One 
thing I may say as a simple rejoinder to the too kind 
speech that has just been made— that, whatever your 
president has done me the honor to say in regard to 
a certain book called "Alton Locke," I have never 
regretted and I have never altered, except in one case, 
which does not refer to any one here, a single word in 
that book. That book was written out of my heart's 
heart, and I go by that book whether I stand or fall. 
It was the youngest and ugliest egg that I ever laid, 
yet I am fondest of it. 

As for cooperation, I bide my time about that. I 
have not in vain read in old times books that are called 
heretical, and would by some be called so now— poor, 
half-mad, half-inspired Fourier and others of the old 
social school. Fourier is dear to me to-day. I am, in the 
true and highest sense of the word a socialist, and I 

1 1 



2 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

have always been; not that I learned it from Fourier, 
but from a man far older and wiser than Fourier— 
my master, Plato. I read Plato in the public schools 
when I was a lad, and Plato's republic has been the 
lodestar and the guiding genius of my political and 
social thought ; and I hope it will remain so until I die. 
And, therefore, neither upon the question of coopera- 
tion nor the questions started in '* Alton Locke" do 
I regret a single word I have written, nor shall I with- 
draw a single word. It may be, as one grows older, 
one gets more and more the painful consciousness of the 
difference between what ought to be done and what can 
be done; and sits down rather more quietly when one 
gets on the wrong side of fifty, and lets others start 
up and do for us the things which we cannot do for 
ourselves. But it is the highest pleasure that a man who 
has turned down the long hill at last— and to his own 
exceeding comfort— can have, to believe that younger 
spirits will rise up after him and catch the lamp 
of truth, as in the old lamp-bearing race of Greece, 
out of his hand before the flame expires and carry it 
on to the goal with swifter and more even feet. And 
so I trust that whatever has been said and thought— not 
by me, for I do not pretend to have thought out much, 
but only by a native glibness of tongue and a deter- 
mination of words to the mouth, to have put into some- 
what more intelligible language the thoughts of wiser 
and better men than myself —whatever has been said 
and thought by the great men of whom I have learned, 
I hope that younger men than myself will do me the 
kindness and honor of snatching that lamp out of my 
hands and passing it on to others. Then, whether 



CHARLES KINGSLEY 3 

they leave me in darkness and in the background makes 
very little difference to me, provided the lamp of 
truth, which is the lamp of freedom, and the lamp of 
wisdom, and the lamp of happiness, is kept alive and 
brightly burning. 

And why is the lamp of truth the lamp of free- 
dom, of wisdom, of happiness ? Because it is the lamp 
of obedience to facts. It is the spirit which takes facts 
as they are, however painful to prejudice, however pain- 
ful to pride, however painful to selfishness; the spirit 
which takes the facts of humanity, the facts of society, 
the facts of science, the facts of nature, the facts of 
spirit, as they are, faces them like men, recognizes when 
they are— as they often are, alas!— unconquerable, and 
submits to them manfully, but, whenever it sees a chance 
of conquering, conquers like a man. The spirit that ac- 
cepts facts, that is the spirit of truth and happiness; 
and as long as men will carry on the lamp we will show 
them facts, without allowing them to fear facts, with- 
out seeing them under I know not what glamour of 
prejudice and blue-lights and fireworks of divers sorts, 
which, if a man walk through them, neither burn nor 
help him. If he will go through the fireworks and get 
into the clear light outside, and look at the facts him- 
self, then that man is carrying on that sacred lamp 
which, when it has passed from my generation, will pass 
into the hands of you younger men, and then to men 
still younger than you, so long as you swear to be true, 
not merely to your country, not merely to your con- 
sciences, not merely to your creed, but swear to be true 
to that which involves conscience, creed, country, and 
altogether, as old Lord Bacon said, true to ''Dei vocem 



4 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

revelatam in rebus"— to the voice of God revealed in 
facts. 

I wish that every one here knew me as well as I 
know myself. If I have other such receptions as this 
in America I shall get out of it as soon as possible, 
for fear you should find me out. I am very easily 
found out. They say there is a great deal of the fool 
in every man, and I never have known a man in my 
life that had more of it than I. I have learned in 
fifty-five years' experience never to go into a room 
without saying to myself, *'You may be the most fool- 
ish and may be the worst man in this room; therefore 
treat all you meet in it with precautionary respect." 
I have lived long enough to feel like the old post- 
horse, very thankful when the end comes. But in the 
meantime, gentlemen, joking apart, one thing I have 
to say; you have paid me a very delicate compli- 
ment, and one that has gone home to my heart, this 
evening, in coupling my name with the two men with 
whom I have grown up, and with whom, through thick 
and thin, wind and storm, I have lived and loved, and 
the two men whom I love best on earth now— Anthony 
Froude and Thomas Hughes. 



JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE 

AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, OCTOBER 12, 1872 

I NEED not say that I thank you most heartily for 
the kind reception which yon give me this evening. 
It adds one more to the many kind acts of hospitality 
which I have received in the short time I have been in 
this country, and I must say, after the kind words 
which your president has said to me, that when you do 
things of this kind you know how to do them in an 
exceedingly gracious manner. I need not at all go 
into subjects which the president has so generously 
touched relating to my experience. I suppose I have 
experienced as much of the asperities of literary life 
as falls to the lot of most people, and I feel rather 
proud to say that I have survived them up to the pres- 
ent time. Here I am, and here I hope to be for a short 
time to come. As to the reception here this evening, 
I should like to thank you, not only for myself, but in 
the name of our common profession. I myself was the 
editor of a London magazine and upon the daily press, 
and therefore deem myself one of the members of the 
great profession which has so much to do in the prog- 
ress of mankind. I am very glad to say that there is 
a sort of freemasonry among journalists, and I recog- 
nize and feel myself here among friends and brothers. 

1* 5 



6 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

That it may be my good fortune, if any of yon should 
ever come to London, to entertain you is certainly my 
hope, and it will be my task, and the same I may say 
of every member of the profession to which I belong in 
London. We are always proud to feel that Americans 
are our companions and brothers in arms. 



WILKIE COLLINS 

AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, SEPTEMBER 27, 1873 

MANY years ago— more years than I now quite 
like to reckon— I was visiting Sorrento, in the 
Bay of Naples, with my father, mother, and brothers, 
as a boy of thirteen. At that time of my life I was 
an insatiable reader of that order of books for which 
heavy people have invented the name of light litera- 
ture. In due course of time I exhausted the modest 
resources of the library which we had brought to 
Naples, and found myself faced with the necessity of 
borrowing from the resources of our fellow-travelers, 
summer residents of Sorrento like ourselves. Among 
them was a certain countryman of yours, very tall, 
very lean, very silent, and very melancholy. In what 
circumstances the melancholy of this gentleman took 
its rise I am not able to tell you. The ladies thought 
it was a disappointment in love. The men attributed 
it to a cause infinitely more serious than that — I mean 
indigestion. Whether he suffered in heart or whether 
he suffered in stomach, I took, I remember, a boy's 
unreasonable fancy to him, passing over dozens of other 
people apparently far more acceptable than he was. 
I ventured to look up to the tall American— it was a 
long way to look up— and said in a trembling voice, 
* ' Can you lend me a book to read ? ' ' He looked down 

7 



8 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

to me— it was a long way to look down— and said, ^*I 
have got but two amusing books. One of them is the 
* Sorrows of Werther' and the other is the 'Sentimental 
Journey.' You are heartily welcome to both these 
books. Take them home, and when you have read 
them bring them back and dine with me and tell me 
what you think of them. ' ' I took them home and read 
them, and told him what I thought of them much more 
freely than I would now. And last, not least, I had 
an excellent dinner, crowned with cake, which was an 
epoch in my youthful existence, and which I may say 
lives gratefully and greasily in my memory to the 
present day. 

Now, Mr. President and gentlemen, I venture to tell 
you this for one reason. It marks my first experience 
of American kindness and American hospitality. In 
many different ways this early expression of your kind- 
ness and hospitality has mingled in my after life, now 
in England, now on the Continent, until it has culmi- 
nated in this magnificent reception. I am not only 
gratified but touched by the manner in which you have 
greeted me, and the cordiality with which the remarks 
of your president have been received. I venture to 
say that I see in this reception something more than a 
recognition of my humble labors only. I think I see 
a recognition of English literature, liberal, spontane- 
ous, and sincere, which, I think, is an honor to you as 
well as an honor to me. In the name of English litera- 
ture, I beg gratefully to thank you. 



LORD HOUaHTON 

(RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES) 
AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, NOVEMBER 21, 1875 

I AM not unaware of the special value of the present 
compliment. I know that here the Lotos Club has 
received Mr. Fronde, the most original of English his- 
torians, who glanced around this room with brilliant 
eye, like that of a frightened horse. Here, too, Canon 
Kingsley has thrilled you with an urgent eloquence 
like a voice of departing genius; and here, too, has 
been received the promise of future English statesman- 
ship in young Lord Rosebery. I feel myself, there- 
fore, under the obligation of answering as clearly and 
powerfully as I can a question not of rare occurrence, 
which I am conscious that every one of my hearers is 
putting to me in his heart, ''What do you think of 
our country?" As to another not infrequent form of 
interrogation, "Do you admire our Constitution?" I 
would state with the utmost candor and the most care- 
ful consideration that I must ask leave to reserve my 
opinion. On one other question I have no difficulty. 
America is eminent for the beauty of her women. At 
my time of life I am no fair witness on that subject, 
but I would offer the more valuable testimony of my 
son, a young man of some talent and perception, seven- 
teen years of age, who has gone home with that expres- 

9 



10 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

sion on his lips and this impression on his heart. In 
this sense, therefore, I fully admire the youth of 
America, but I am not prepared to impersonate the 
country herself exactly in that respect. Americans are 
very fond of appealing to their youth. When any- 
thing goes wrong or seems incomplete or disappoint- 
ing they say, *'You should remember how young we 
are." Now, I am not prepared entirely to admit that 
pretension. In all that constitutes a nation, in the 
aggregation of thought, in the expansion of ideas, 
America has all the experience of the Europe from 
which she came, added to the interest and vivacity 
which she has gained from transportation to a novel 
hemisphere. She has indeed that charm of middle life 
and that combination of full, luscious beauty and ma- 
ture intelligence which a great French novelist imper- 
sonated in the ' ' Pemme de Quarante Ans. ' * Balzac him- 
self may have taken his notion from the old anecdote 
of a Frenchman giving to his son two counsels on his 
entry into the world : "Listen to the old men, and make 
love to the women of forty." 

This is the advice I would now repeat. Love your 
America with all the devotion she deserves, and do not 
disregard the words and thoughts of veteran Europe. 
As an allusion has been made to me both as a poet and 
politician, it might not be unbecoming for me to say 
that I have done my best to reconcile whatever imagi- 
native faculty I may possess to the practical business 
of the world and its political action. I was for twenty- 
five years a member of the House of Commons, and 
afterward of the other branch of Parliament, and I 
believe that, taken as a whole, no man's life suffers 



LORD HOUGHTON 11 

from a mixture of the real and the ideal. I know I 
am addressing the Lotos Club, a society whose funda- 
mental principle has been expressed in the melodious 
verses of one of the latest and not least of American 
poets, Joaquin Miller: 

It seems to me that Mother Earth 
Is weary from eternal toil 
And bringing forth by fretted soil, 

In all the agonies of birth. 

Sit down ! sit down ! So it were best 

That we should rest, that she should rest. 



I think we then shaU aU be glad, 

At least I know we are not now ; 
Not one. And even Earth, somehow. 

Seems growing old and over-sad. 

Then fold your hands -, for it were best 

That we should rest, that she should rest. 

Somehow or other, I hardly think that my present 
audience is quite so purely contemplative, quite so en- 
tirely free from all worldly interests and secular mo- 
tives as your nomenclature would imply. And you 
are right. If you lived exclusively in a sphere of lit- 
erature and art, you would be living solely for your- 
selves, but now you are mixing in daily life with other 
men, taking upon yourselves high responsibilities, and 
leavening with your thoughts and objects the hard and 
heavy destiny of the common multitude of mankind. 
You are in truth an aristocracy, quite as real as, and 
in your ultimate action more powerful than, the sena- 
tors of Venice, the barons of England, or the grandees 
of Spain. It is your mission to lead on this magnifi- 



12 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

cent country in the van of civilization of the world, 
to give form and permanence to what would otherwise 
have been a fleeting development of material force, to 
give dignity to wealth and consolation to poverty, and 
to stifle the jealousies of the elder world at any possi- 
ble expansion of the dominion of the new by making 
it coincident with the progressive development of man. 



BAYARD TAYLOE 

AT THE DINNER TO LORD HOUGHTON, NOVEMBER 21, 1875 

DURING the last fifteen or twenty years we have 
had frequent opportunities of welcoming distin- 
guished English authors— writers of fiction, like Thack- 
eray, Dickens, and Wilkie Collins, historians and essay- 
ists—but Lord Houghton is the first English poet whom 
Americans have had the pleasure of receiving as a 
guest. I do not mean to deny that title to Canon 
Eangsley, whose prose works, however, are more promi- 
nent. I am glad to notice that in the many hospi- 
talities which Lord Houghton has received, the first, 
most cordial greeting has been given to the poet. And 
I desire specially to thank him now for the wise and en- 
couraging words which he has spoken, both to-night 
and on former occasions, concerning the importance of 
literature as an element of our national civilization. 
We greatly need such words ; but an American author 
could hardly utter them without subjecting himself to 
the charge of magnifying his office for the sake of 
some personal interest. When we hear them from one 
who is himself an exemplification of the truth that 
poetry is a help, not a hindrance, to practical labor in 
other fields of life— that the man of shy and delicate 
imagination may still be the large-hearted man of so- 
ciety—and, finally, that the sympathies which literary 

13 



14 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

studies promote may also become the wisdom of the 
statesman; their authority cannot be disputed. 

I said that Lord Houghton is the first English poet 
to visit America; but I quite forgot Tom Moore, who 
spent two or three months here in 1804. It would have 
been quite as well, perhaps, if he had not come, for 
what he saw was apparently not edifying to him, and 
what he wrote was certainly not edifying to us. He 
visited Washington when Thomas Jefferson was Presi- 
dent, and could find no other epithet for that states- 
man than ''the rebel chief. ^' I am sure that Lord 
Houghton's proposal that we, in the interest of his- 
tory, should restore the statue of George III to Bowling 
Green is not made in that spirit; for he offers, in re- 
turn, to have the statue of Washington placed in the 
Houses of Parliament. But let us hope that it will 
not be seventy-one years before the next English poet 
comes here to find out how well we know him. Let us 
beg Lord Houghton to say to his English brethren in 
literature that, although we may not be— as one of 
them has said— Posterity, we are a warm, sympathetic, 
and broadly receptive cotemporary race. 

I should like to tell you, very briefly, of my personal 
obligations to Lord Houghton as an author. I read 
''The Men of Old" and the "Legend of the Lac de 
Gaube" as a boy of seventeen, when I was still under 
the spell of Byron and found that Wordsworth was 
a little too high for me. These and other of his poems 
formed the bridge upon which I crossed from Byron 
to Wordsworth. I still recall four lines of the "Legend 
of the Lac de Gaube" which charmed me then and 
have haunted me ever since. Whenever I have come 



BAYARD TAYLOR 15 

upon a lonely, snow-fed lake in the high Alps, the 
Sierra Nevada, the Rocky Mountains, the Norwegian 
Dorr e-Fj eld, or anjnvhere else in the world, I have 
always repeated to myself: 

A mirror where the veteran rocks 
May glass their seams and scars ; 

A nether sky where breezes break 
The sunshine into stars. 



EDMUND YATES 

AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, MARCH 8, 1877 

OF all public bodies in this city with which I have 
been brought into friendly relations, the Lotos 
Club is the one which, had the opportunity been of- 
fered to me, I should most have wished to give me this 
farewell banquet, to say to me these words of God- 
speed. For when my intention of visiting this coun- 
try was first announced, and when I was yet in my own ■ 
land, the Lotos Club proffered to me its hand of wel- 
coming friendship and on my arrival accorded me a 
hearty reception and offered me its privileges. This 
I know was an act of graceful hospitality generally 
practised by this genial club to strangers whose names 
are in any way known, but when I found that the tem- 
porary privileges of the use of the club had, without 
solicitation on my part, been converted into a per- 
manent life membership, and when I see that those 
who greeted me as a stranger are gathered around me 
after a six months ' acquaintance to take farewell of me 
as a friend, I think I have reason to be no little proud. 
Gentlemen, these past six months have been to me the 
most gratifying of my whole life. I shall never for- 
get the heart-sinking with which I contemplated the 
roofs and spires of New York from the Cunard steamer 
as we slowly steamed into dock. I had voluntarily cut 

16 



EDMUND YATES 17 

away the links which for twenty years had bound me 
to government employ, and was about to commence a 
new career among a people to whom, as I imagined, 
I was a stranger. The first persons to dispel that un- 
pleasant idea were the members of this club. From 
their first reception of me to the present moment my 
career in America has been one of tolerably hard work 
indeed, but of hard work which has been lightened by 
the most boundless hospitality, the most constant cour- 
tesy, the most delicate, yet genial appreciation. I 
came to America in fear and trembling. I leave it 
with feelings of affection and gratitude, and though I 
have no doubt that my heart will again sink within me 
when on Wednesday next I stand on the deck of the 
Calabria and your glorious city melts into the distance, 
the sensation will be caused by regret at parting from 
those who have given me their friendship and whom I 
hope speedily to see again. 

This is all about myself and you, and I intended that 
it should be. Some years ago it might have been op- 
portune in me to express a hope that better relations 
might be cultivated between your country and mine, 
but I trust in God that there is no necessity for this 
now. Only one word will I say upon this subject. In 
a friendly article in one of your newspapers, this very 
morning, I saw myself alluded to as an 'intelligent and 
kindly foreigner." I am sure that I but express the 
general opinion of my countrymen in saying that we 
should be very glad if in speaking of us you would 
forego that word. I am convinced that it in no way 
conveys the warmth of feeling and kinship with which 
the better classes of both countries regard each other. 



18 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

If you will lend your aid to the substitution of warmer 
terms— if you will, in your position as authors, jour- 
nalists, and members of society, endeavor to convince 
the masses of this great continent that there are Eng- 
lishmen who can open their mouths without saying 
''blarsted," and without unnecessarily aspirating the 
h's, I pledge myself to state everywhere in my own 
country that during my residence in this I have never 
been called "old hoss," I have never heard the word 
' ' tarnation, ' ' and that I have never seen a man ' ' whit- 
tling a stick.'' 

And now, gentlemen, as I am approaching the hard- 
est word in my little speech, "Farewell,"— 

A word that has been, and must be : 
A sound that makes us linger, — 

I find that I cannot quite trust my voice to utter it, 
and so gladly accept Mr. Reid's suggestion, and sub- 
stitute the pleasanter phrase, "Au revoir." For your 
generous recognition of me at first, and for your con- 
tinued friendship, I return you my deepest and most 
heartfelt thanks. 



JOHN GILBEET 

AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, NOVEMBER 30, 1878 

«/^^SAR, we who are about to die salute you/' 
V-^ Such W£LS the gladiators' cry in the arena, stand- 
ing face to face with death. There is a certain apposite- 
ness in the words I have just uttered that probably may 
correspond to my position. Understand me, I do not 
mean to die theatrically at present, but when a man 
has arrived at my age he can scarcely look forward to 
very many years of professional exertion. When my 
old friend John Brougham (Mr. Brougham, I am not 
going to die just yet) announced to me the honor that 
the Lotos Club proffered me, I was flattered and compli- 
mented. But I said, ' ' John, you know I am no speech- 
maker. ' ' He replied, "Say anything. " ' ' Anything ? ' ' 
I said. ' ^ Anything won 't do. " " Then, ' ' said he, ' ' re- 
peat the first speech of Sir Peter Teazle: 'When an old 
bachelor marries a young wife, what is he to expect ? ' " 
Well, I think I can paraphrase that and say, "When a 
young man enters the theatrical profession, what is he 
to expect ? ' ' Well, he may expect a good many things 
that are never realized. However, suf&ce it to say that 
fifty years ago I made my debut as an actor in my 
native city of Boston. I commenced in the first-class 
character of Jaffier in Otway's charming tragedy of 
"Venice Preserved." The public said it was a suc- 

19 



20 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

cess, and I thought it was. The manager evidently- 
thought it was, too, for he let me repeat the character. 
Well, I suppose it was a success for a young man with 
such aspirations as I had. There might have been some 
inspiration about it— at least there ought to have been, 
for the lady who personated Belvidera was Mrs. Duff, 
a lovely woman and the most exquisite tragic actress 
that I ever saw from that period to the present. After 
this I acted two or three parts, Mortimer, Shylock, and 
some of those little trifling characters, with compara- 
tive success. But shortly after, and wisely, I went into 
the ranks to study my profession— not to commence at 
the top and go to the bottom, but to begin at the bot- 
tom and go to the top, if possible. As a young man I 
sought for pastures fresh and new. I went to the 
south and west, my ambition still being, as is that of 
all youthful aspirants for dramatic honors, for tragedy. 
At last I went to a theater, and, to my great disgust 
and indignation, I was cast for an old man— at the age 
of nineteen. However, I must do it. There was no 
alternative, and I did it. I received applause. I 
played a few more old men. I found at last that that 
was my point, my forte, and I followed it up, and after 
this long lapse of years I still continue in that depart- 
ment. I went to England and was received with kind- 
ness and cordiality, and returning to my own country, 
in 1862 I was invited to join Wallack's Theatre, under 
the management of the father of my dear friend here, 
Lester Wallack— his father, whom I am proud to ac- 
knowledge as a friend of fifty years and my dramatic 
master. I need not tell you that since that time I have 
been under the direction of his son. What my career 



JOHN GILBERT 21 

has been up to the present time you all know. It re- 
quires no comment from me. I am no longer a young 
man, but I do not think I am an old man. I owe this 
to a good constitution and moderately prudent life. I 
may say with Shakspere 's Adam that, 

In my youth I never did apply 
Hot and rebelHous hquors in my blood, . . . 
Therefore my age is as a lusty winter, 
Frosty but kindly. 

[The president then introduced John Brougham, who 
said : Upon an event like this the ovation should all be 
given to my old— my young friend, John Gilbert. He 
is old only in a theatrical sense. He is not much older 
—not much younger, I mean— than I am. I believe 
absolutely with the Frenchman, that a woman is as 
old as she looks and a man is as old as he feels. I 
feel as well as ever I did. And I do not feel that I 
look so much older than I feel, and let me say here, as 
a word of warning to our younger friends, that the 
way to enjoy your life and to prolong it is to econo- 
mize your enjoyments— which I take credit to myself 
by saying that I have always done. John has passed 
his half century of life— and so have I. He has only 
the advantage of me by about three months. In con- 
clusion, I will only say to you who have honored my 
friend that there are none more prompt than myself 
and my friend John Gilbert to respond to any kindness 
or attention wherever it may be proposed.] 



2* 



WILLIAM WINTEE 

AT THE DINNER TO JOHN GILBERT, NOVEMBER 30, 1878 

I THANK you gratefully for this kind welcome, and 
I think it is a privilege to be allowed to take part 
in a festival so delightful as this, and to join with you 
in paying respect to a name so justly renowned and 
honored as that of John Gilbert. I cannot hope ade- 
quately to respond to the personal sentiments which 
have been so graciously expressed, nor adequately to 
celebrate the deeds and the virtues of your distin- 
guished guest. *'I am ill at these numbers; . . . 
but such answer as 1 can make you shall command.'^ 
For since first I became familiar with the stage— in 
far-away days, in old Boston— John Gilbert has been 
the fulfilment of one of my highest ideals of excellence 
in the dramatic art, and it would be hard if I could 
not now say this, if not with eloquence at least with 
fervor. I am aware of a certain strangeness, however, 
in the thought that words, in his presence and to his 
honor, should be spoken by me. The freaks of time 
and fortune are, indeed, strange. I cannot but re- 
member that, when John Gilbert was yet in the full 
flush of his young manhood and already crowned with 
the laurels of success, the friend who is now speaking 
was a boy at his sports— playing around the old Fed- 
eral Street Theatre and beneath the walls of the 
Franklin Street Cathedral, and hearing, upon the broad 

22 



WILLIAM WINTER 23 

causeway of Pearl Street, the rustle and patter of the 
autumn leaves as they fell from the chestnuts around 
the Perkins Institute and the elms that darkened the 
somber, deserted castle of Harris's Folly. With this sense 
of strangeness, though, comes a sense, still more striking 
and impressive, of the turbulent, active, and brilliant 
period through which John Gilbert has lived. Byron 
had been dead but four years, and Scott and Words- 
worth were still writing, when he began to act. Goethe 
was still alive. The works of Thackeray and Dickens 
were yet to be created. Cooper, Irving, Bryant, Hal- 
leck, and Percival were the literary lords of that pe- 
riod in America. The star of Willis was ascending, 
while those of Hawthorne and Poe were yet to rise; 
and dramas of Talfourd, Knowles, and Bulwer were 
yet to be seen by him as fresh contributions to the lit- 
erature of the stage. All these great names are writ- 
ten now in the book of death. All that part of old 
Boston to which I have referred— the scene equally of 
Gilbert's birth and youth and first successes, and of 
his tender retrospection— has been swept away or en- 
tirely changed. Gone is the old Federal Street Thea- 
tre. Gone that quaint English lane, with the cozy 
tobacconist's shop which he used to frequent. Gone 
the hospitable Stackpole, where, many a time, at ''the 
latter end of a sea-coal fire," he heard the chimes at 
midnight from the spire of the Old South Church! 
But, though ' ' the spot where many a time he triumphed 
is forgot," his calm and gentle genius and his hale 
physique have endured in unabated vigor, so that he 
who has charmed two generations of playgoers still 
happily lives to charm the men and women of to-day. 



24 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

Webster, Choate, Felton, Everett, Rantoul, Shaw, Bart- 
lett, Lunt, Hallet, Starr King, Bartol, Kirk— these and 
many more, the old worthies of the bar, the bench, and 
the pulpit, in Boston's better days of intellect and 
taste — all saw him, as we see him, in the silver- 
gray elegance and exquisite perfection with which he 
illustrates the comedies of England. His career has 
impinged upon the five great cities of Boston, New Or- 
leans, Philadelphia, London, and New York. It touches 
at one extreme the ripe fame of Munden (who died in 
1832), and, freighted with all the rich traditions of 
the stage, it must needs, at its other extreme, transmit, 
even into the next century, the high mood, the scholar- 
like weight, and the pure style of the finest strain of 
acting that Time has bestowed upon civilized man. 
By what qualities it has been distinguished this bril- 
liant assemblage is full well aware. The dignity, 
which is its grandeur; the sincerity, which is its truth; 
the thoroughness, which is its massive substance; the 
sterling principle, which is its force ; the virtue, which 
is its purity; the scholarship, mind, humor, taste, ver- 
satile aptitude of simulation and beautiful grace of 
method, which are its powerful and delightful facul- 
ties and attributes, have all been brought home to your 
minds and hearts by the living and conquering genius 
of the man himself! I have often lingered in fancy 
upon the idea of that strange, diversified, wonderful 
procession— here the dazzling visage of Garrick, there 
the woeful face of Mossop; here the glorious eyes of 
Kean, there the sparkling loveliness of Woffington, Ab- 
ington, Jordan, and Nesbitt— which moves, through 
the chambers of memory, across the old and storied 



WILLIAM WINTER 25 

stage. The thoaight is endless in its suggestion and 
fascinating in its charm. How often, in the chimney- 
corner of life, shall we— whose privilege it has been to 
rejoice in the works of this great comedian, and whose 
happiness it is to cluster around him to-night, in love 
and admiration— conjure up and muse upon his stately 
figure as we have seen him in the garb of Sir Peter, 
and Sir Bohert, and Jaques, and Wolsey, and Elmore! 
The ruddy countenance, the twinkling gray eyes, the 
silver hair, the kind smile, the hearty voice, the old- 
time courtesy of manner— how tenderly will they be 
remembered! how dearly are they prized! Scholar! 
Actor! Gentleman! Long may he be spared to dig- 
nify and adorn the stage— a soother of our cares, a 
comfort to our hearts, an exemplar, a benefactor, a 
friend !— the Edelweiss of his age and of our affections ! 

Where, pure and pale, the starlight streams 

Far down the Alpine slope. 
Still through eternal winter gleams 

The snowy flower of hope : 
Undimmed by cloud, undrenched by tears, 

So may his laurel last — • 
While shines o'er all his future years 

The rainbow of the past ! 

Far, far from him the mournful hour 

That brings the final call 
And o'er his scenes of grace and power 

Fate lets the curtain fall 5 
And, oh, when sounds that knell of worth, 

To his pure soul be given 
A painless exit from the earth, 

And entrance into Heaven ! 1 
1 Copyriglit by the Macmillan Company, of New York. 



WILLIAM S. aiLBEET 

AT THE DINNER TO WILLIAM S. GILBERT AND ARTHUR 
SULLIVAN, NOVEMBER 9, 1879 

AS my friend Sullivan and myself were driving to 
Jl\. this club this evening, both of us being very ner- 
vous and sensitive men, and both of us men who are 
highly conscious of our oratorical defects and deficien- 
cies, and having before us vividly the ordeal awaiting 
us, we cast about for a comparison of our then condi- 
tion. We likened ourselves to two authors driving 
down to a theatre at which a play of theirs was to 
be played the first time. The thought was somewhat 
harassing, but we dismissed it, however, because we 
remembered that there was always the even chance of 
success, whereas in the performance in which we were 
about to take part there was no prospect of aught but 
humiliating failure. We were rather in the position 
of prisoners surrendering to their bail, and we beg of 
you to extend to us your most merciful consideration. 
But it is expected of me, perhaps, that in replying to 
this toast with which your chairman has so kindly cou- 
pled my name, I shall do so in a tone of the lightest 
possible comedy. I had almost said that I am sorry to 
say that I can't do so; but, in truth, I am not sorry. 
A man who has been welcomed as we have been here, by 
the leaders in literature and art in this city, a man who 

26 



WILLIAM S. GILBERT 27 

could look upon that welcome as a string upon which 
to hang a series of small jokes, would show that he was 
responding to an honor to which he was not entitled. 
For it is no light thing to come to a country which 
we have been taught to regard as a foreign country, 
and to find ourselves, in the best sense of the word, 
"at home" among a people whom we are taught to 
regard as strangers, but whom we are astonished to 
find are our intimate friends ; and that proffered friend- 
ship is so dear to us that I am disposed, on behalf of 
my collaborator and myself, to stray somewhat from 
the beaten paths of after-dinner oratory, and endeavor 
to justify ourselves in respect to a matter in which we 
have some reason to feel that we have been misrepre- 
sented. I have seen in several London journals well- 
meant but injudicious paragraphs saying that we have 
a grievance against the New York managers because 
they have played our pieces and have offered us no 
share of the profits. We have no grievance whatever. 
Our only complaint is that there is no international 
copyright act. The author of a play in which there 
is no copyright is very much in the position of an au- 
thor or the descendants of an author whose copyright 
has expired. I am not aware that our London pub- 
lishers are in the habit of seeking the descendants of 
Sir Walter Scott, or Lord Byron, or Captain Marryat 
and offering them a share of the profits on their pub- 
lications. I have yet to learn that our London man- 
agers seek out the living representatives of Oliver Gold- 
smith, or Richard Brinsley Sheridan, or William 
Shakspere in order to pay them any share of the profits 
from the production of ''She Stoops to Conquer," or 



28 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

the " Good-Natured Man," or the ''Merchant of Yen- 
ice." If they do so, they do it on the principle that 
the left hand knows not what the right hand doeth, 
and as we have not heard of it, we presume, therefore, 
that they have not done so. And we believe if those 
eminent men were to request a share of the, profits they 
would be met with the reply that the copyright on those 
works had expired. And so, if we should suggest it to 
the managers of this country, they would perhaps 
reply, with at least equal justice, Gentlemen, your copy- 
right never existed. For myself, I certainly don 't pose 
as an object of compassion. 



HOEACE PORTER 

AT THE DINNER TO CHARLES G. LELAND, FEBRUARY 1, 1880 

I CAN hardly tell you I am taken by surprise, since 
it is as much as a minute since your president 
winked at me. The Scripture saith, ' ' He that winketh 
with the eye causeth sorrow." I have never before so 
keenly felt the force of Scripture. I can easily under- 
stand why it might be thought advisable to call me 
out. It was supposed, no doubt, that the distinguished 
guest of the evening would more readily understand 
my dialect. For where I was raised we plume our- 
selves on the purity of our German accent, and in the 
presence of this great master of dialect it may not be 
amiss for me to call your attention to the fact that in 
this great country, people in the various parts of it 
pride themselves upon the peculiarity of their dialects. 
There is the ''Down-East Yankee," for instance, 
brought up in those peculiar, rigid notions of economy 
that prevail in New England, who in his speech follows 
out his economical teaching and endeavors to save the 
wear on his throat by talking through his nose. There 
are our Southern friends who spill their r's with as 
much prodigality as Englishmen drop their h's; and 
others on the Pacific coast who have a sort of bric-a- 
brac language, a kind of broken china. And when we 
come to our own capital city of New York, we notice 

29 



30 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

the peculiarity of dialects among this mongrel race, 
springing from the Flathead Indians of this island 
and the flat-footed Dutchmen from abroad. I think 
we have another dialect, even in the present day, at 
least so far as the city officials are concerned. It 
seems that they speak the Indian dialect of their pro- 
genitors. You have all doubtless had occasion, if you 
approached an official in the way of asking a favor, 
to find that you could never make yourself properly 
understood unless you "talked Indian" to him. 

I once tried to travel through Germany on my Penn- 
sylvania dialect. When Germans did n't understand 
a word I said it was certainly no fault of mine, but a 
painful misfortune that they had not been raised in 
the State of Pennsylvania. When I was in Germany 
they addressed me in various ways. They would spin 
out a sentence in that elastic language attenuated to 
the thinness of a cobweb, and if I did not show signs 
of comprehension they would telescope the whole sen- 
tence into one confused word and try me with that. 
I went on for about two days, and did not understand 
a word. I began to feel lonesome, and the more people 
came up to me the more lonesome I felt. It reminded 
me of my early days, when I and a few other cadets at 
West Point obtained a furlough and came to New 
York to have a good time. One of the party during 
dinner drank too much ; he got through the demonstra- 
tive stage, and at length worked up everything in the 
form of an equation. Finally he came to the conclu- 
sion to accompany us to the pantomime at Niblo 's. We 
told him to "brace up and pull himself together"; he 
could go and see what it was like, and then come away. 



HORACE PORTER 31 

He linked his arms in ours, and we got down to the thea- 
tre. The pantomime went on, and he watched with in- 
tense interest the violent gesticulations of the actors, not 
a word being spoken. He leaned over his seat, put his 
hand to his ear, and when the curtain went down he 
remarked : ' ' I say, I am drunker than I thought I was ; 
I have n't understood a word that has been said in the 
whole play.'' 

That is just the way it was with me in Germany. 
Finally it became absolutely necessary for me to know 
whether a certain train went through to Berlin; I re- 
hearsed my grammar, and, gathering together certain 
fragments of that disjointed language, I called the 
conductor and hurled at his head the following verbal 
projectile. I knew if it struck home I should be apt 
to hear from him. 

''Geht diser zug nach Berlin one vechsel?" He 
turned upon me with a look I shall never forget. 
**Mein Gott in Himmel!" he said. ''What a tam fine 
kind of German is that which you here speak ! ' ' 

Now, I only mention this to show that when one with 
a foreign education finds such difficulty in wrestling 
with the German vernacular, we should look with kindly 
eyes on Hans Breitmann in his efforts to employ the 
English language. 

Now, simply thanking you, as all will, for the great 
pleasure we have derived from your work, let me also 
thank the Lotos Club for the enjoyment of this occa- 
sion. When I look around upon these groaning boards 
I think of one of Sherman's bummers down in South 
Carolina during the war. The regiment was ordered 
one morning to strap their ammunition on their shoul- 



32 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

ders and ford a river. This river had swamps six 
miles on either side of it, and this bummer, while cross- 
ing, turjied round to his comrade and said : ' ' Bill, I 'm 
blowed if I don't believe we have struck this 'ere river 
lengthways." Now, sir, when I look around upon the 
length and breadth of the superb hospitalities you have 
spread out before us to-night I think with each invited 
guest here that we have struck this hospitality length- 
wise. 



WHITELAW EEID 

(PRESIDENT OP THE CLUB) 
AT THE DECENNIAL DINNER, MARCH 28, 1880 

FOR a long time this was the youngest club in New 
York. That was its distinction. But this would 
put it now in a hard case, for that distinction it has 
lost. It has weathered the panics and survived the 
dinners of a decade. Now, ten years, I am instructed, 
are to a club what twenty-one are to a man ; and so our 
guardians and tyrants, the directory, have made a 
dinner and invited in the friends and neighbors to 
celebrate Young Hopeful's coming of age. 

The Lotos Club was originally intended as a sort of 
common meeting- ground for the younger men in art, 
literature, music, the drama, journalism, and other pro- 
fessions. But it is a lamentable fact that those younger 
men are not so young now as they were ten years ago. 
Looking at the snowy beard of Macdonald, or the thin- 
ner locks of Depew, or the wasting frame of the ema- 
ciated Hammond, you might even deny that they are 
young men at all. At any rate, the juvenility which 
used to be thrown up to them as a reproach is no 
longer regarded by them in that light. If our friends 
and guests wish to pay them the rarest and most gra- 
cious compliment they have only to begin by address- 
ing them as *' Young gentlemen." But try that magic 
formula, and you shall see Eichard 'Gorman and 
John Brougham and Tait and Lathers and a score of 

3 33 



34 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

others leaping to their feet, each eager to answer, ''Here 
amL" 

The Lotos Club, rather more perhaps than some of 
the others, has been given to the duty of entertaining 
the stranger that is within our gates. It was a cir- 
cumstance rather than original malice on our part 
that led to this custom. We did not want to get in 
the way of anybody else, or to put ourselves forward 
unduly. But the thing needed doing, and it was the 
fortune, good or bad, of the club to have a way and a 
place for doing it. First and last we have entertained 
a good many who deserved it, and possibly one or two 
who might have been reserved for an even crueller 
fate. In one way at least we have discharged the func- 
tions of a club. There has been a good deal of eating 
and drinking here, and there have been dinners that 
would have given Falstaff himself an indigestion. 

This has been a sort of neutral ground on which all 
manner of alien and hostile elements could mingle. 
People have met here who could not, by any possibility, 
have met anywhere else, and, truth to tell, they 've 
sometimes gone away swearing they would n't meet 
here again. Perhaps we may modestly claim that we 
have done something toward practising the virtues of 
hospitality, something to promote that kindly good- 
fellowship which is the basis of club life and the basis 
of life itself. 

It has been hinted that we have got through the 
diseases of childhood. By that test we are older even 
than we look. All young clubs pass through a pro- 
longed agony of impending bankruptcy. That is, some 
of them pass through it; others get into it and stop 
there ! Well, we did n 't stop ! Perhaps, in fact, this 



Whitelaw Reid 



WHITELAW REID 35 

club ought to pose as an Infant Phenomenon. It is 
decently housed; it lives tolerably; it buys an occa- 
sional picture, and, once in a long time, a bottle of 
wine; and yet it does n't owe any man a dollar, and it 
has money in the bank ! 

Why should I say more, gentlemen, save to con- 
gratulate you on having so passed the years of your 
minority that you are honored to-night by the atten- 
dance of the president of almost every considerable club 
in the metropolis. In your name I give them all your 
heartiest welcome. 

And now, gentlemen, if you will fill your glasses, 
I am about to propose a toast in honor of our nearest 
neighbors. They constitute one of the largest, and I 
am sure in date of actual organization the oldest, of 
the clubs of New York. They have a peculiar claim 
to our sympathies, for they have been robbed and be- 
reaved. This great remorseless country of ours— and 
by country I mean that great region, unknown to New- 
Yorkers, which lies all over this continent outside the 
limits of Manhattan Island— this remorseless coun- 
try has swooped down upon our neighbors and carried 
away from them their president to place him in Wash- 
ington in a position next to the highest in the Govern- 
ment. And there are gruesome rumors getting about 
that this country has other fell purposes in view, and 
that it is not impossible that he may yet receive march- 
ing orders and be told to go one station higher still. 
Gentlemen, I give you the prosperity of our nearest 
neighbor, the Union Club, and health, happiness, and 
higher honors yet to its brilliant and distinguished 
president, our friend, the ornament of New York- 
Mr. Evarts. 



WILLIAM M. EYAETS 

AT THE DECENNIAL DINNER, MARCH 28, 1880 

I HAVE a better and more complete reason for ac- 
cepting your invitation than for acceding to any re- 
quest, either public or private or social, that I have 
ever had occasion to meet. I have come to your dinner 
because I wanted to come. I have come for the enjoy- 
ment which I expected and for the advantage of seeing 
in its own home and in its own festivity this club, 
which has contributed more to the public fame and the 
public hospitality, intellectually, of the City of New 
York than all of the other clubs in the city put together. 
I represent, to be sure, a famous and eminent club, but 
I must feel that in these respects at least its principal 
distinction is that it is the exact opposite of your club. 
You have said, sir, that your club is now completing 
its decade, and it must be a bold club that can mark by 
a festivity the stage of its decadence. The Lotos Club 
is a profound and mysterious club. I observe that on 
your beautiful menu, and on these beautiful souvenirs 
which bear the sphinx and the lotos flower, so artistic 
and so permanent, you preserve the exotic notion that 
you take your name from the lotos plant. But students 
of history and students of mysticism know that the 
name of your club is one of those artificial words which 
are made up of the initials of other words, concealed, 

36 



WILLIAM M. EVARTS 37 

but of profound meaning : ' ' Leges Omnium Tegumenta 
Ossaque Salutis." "Laws make the tissue and the 
framework of the public safety. ' ' What are these laws 
which you thus impress and maintain as furnishing the 
tissue and the frame of the public safety? You have 
intimated that at your dinners sometimes something 
more than healths were drunk. That does not look like 
a reign of law ! The laws of war and the laws of trade 
are equally banished from this dominion ; but the laws 
of civility, the laws of charity, which you use to cover a 
multitude of sins— these are the laws which dominate 
here. This institution is framed by the same profound 
arts which built the pyramids and reared the obelisks. 
It is finally to subjugate government and church and 
society, all, to good-fellowship, and to have a good time 
—which never occurs to priests, or kings, or statesmen. 

You have said, sir, that the Union Club, your neigh- 
bor and the oldest club in the city, over which I have 
the honor to preside, has been in some sense robbed of 
its true possession, of its president, by some public 
demands. Well, I came here, as I have said previously, 
upon a motive of personal pleasure, but I am happy 
to say that I found concurrent with it a deep sense 
of public duty. I came to represent the political, the 
social, the— [hesitating] —the industrial sentiments of 
the Union Club. 

Scipio is said to have given birth to the sentiment 
that he was never less idle than when idle, and that is 
true of the Union Club. It is at the bottom of 
all great reforms, intellectual, moral, and social, that 
have marked the present age, and it was only a sense 
of that valuable and permanent agency of the Union 



[ 



38 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

Club that induced me to accept its presidency. What 
I could do as an individual in any of these direc- 
tions was trifling to what I could do as the head of 
that great confraternity of social activity; and I am 
happy to recognize in the ambition of this club and in 
the emulation of its companions a recognition of the 
great active reforming, renovating influence of the 
Union Club. 

What is it that we, who are members of these clubs, 
can do to serve the people of the United States who are 
not members of these clubs? One of the first things 
that we can do is to encourage them by placing in 
eminent public positions the presidents of these clubs. 
Supposing, for instance, as you, sir, have also dis- 
tantly intimated, the president of one of these clubs 
was President of the United States, and his Cabinet 
was composed of presidents of the other clubs. I need 
not say, gentlemen, that that would be a political mil- 
lennium which would make this nation both peaceful at 
home and the master of the fortunes of all the nations 
of the world. What nation in history, what nation of our 
own time, has ever presented such a spectacle as that? 
All shortcomings, all animosities, all rivalries, which 
have disfigured the course of political controversies in 
the past, and do disfigure them in the present, would 
be entirely submerged by this absolute predominance 
of club law, always noted for its vigor, but in this par- 
ticular representation manifested in its wisdom and in 
its benevolence. I do not know, looking over the list 
of eminent presidents of the clubs of this city, any one 
that on the whole I would prefer should be President 
of the United States rather than the president of the 
Union Club. 



WILLIAM M. EVARTS 39 

I think it is a very great point that our politics, and 
that men in public life, and that public activities, 
should be brought a little more closely into relation 
mth that social and cordial feeling which befits us as 
men. We were men before we were citizens, and we 
have at bottom all over this country the most devout 
affection for our government, the most sure hope and 
expectation of the glory of our country ; and whatever 
parties we belong to, whatever lines of thought we may 
have adopted, we, as men of society and genial feel- 
ings, collected as we are in these great social organiza- 
tions of the great city of the country, have these things 
in common— that we desire no triumph of party, and 
no triumph of persons, that shall carry a subjugation 
of the people or a suppression of real patriotism. Let 
us, then, carry these sentiments into the wider activi- 
ties of public life. Let us recognize in all parties men 
who love their country, men who bring to its service 
all the faculties and all the labors that they command, 
and, taking the fate of either fortune, prosperity or 
adversity, are satisfied if they do their duty, whether 
they fall or rise in doing it. Now, this club of yours, 
as I have intimated, has one advantage over all the 
other clubs of this city. It is brandished oftener than 
any other club before the people, and allow me, in 
taking my seat, to toast 'Hhe Lotos Club, the shillalah 
among clubs.'' 



ALEXANDEE E. MACDONALD 

AT THE DECENNIAL DINNER, MARCH 28, 1880 

The first vice-president, Mr. Noah Brooks, having, in behalf of some of the 
members, presented a loving-cup to the club, it was received by the president, 
Mr. Whitelaw Reid, who called upon the secretary, Dr. A. E. Macdonald, to 
respond. The response was as follows : 

FOR once I cannot quarrel with the reason given for 
calling me to my feet, for it has been privately 
intimated to me that I have been selected to receive 
this cup as being that member of the club who might 
be confidently expected to appreciate it the most and 
use it the least. Had the reason given by our presi- 
dent—the fact of my being your secretary— been the 
only one, I might have objected to the adding to a 
burden which I am just laying down, albeit for once 
I feel secure in the sympathy of at least one gentle- 
man at the table, who knows the difficulties of a sec- 
retary's lot— that is, to some extent, for of course the 
diplomatic relations of the United States are by no 
means so delicate or so complex as are those of the 
Lotos Club. 

Well, as to the cup, I like it ; there are certain points 
about it which appeal to me. Not the eagles only ; my 
love for them is of older growth, and it has fed and 
flourished upon that which the poet tells us always 
''will make the fond remembrance fonder"— absence. 
But the two handles principally excite my admiration. 
There is something tangible about two handles. It is 

40 



ALEXANDER E. MACDONALD 41 

reassuring to see two handles to a cup at so early an 
hour in the evening, when you can be sublimely con- 
fident that they are not the fruit of optical illusion; 
and then, whereas when there is only one handle you 
may be tolerably certain as to the location of that 
handle without having any very definite assurance as 
to the precise position of the cup, when there are two 
handles, and you are reasonably confident that you 
have one in each hand, it is capable of demonstration, 
by a simple mathematical and geographical problem, 
with the help of the mariner 's compass, and the theodo- 
lite, and the thermo-electric differential calorimeter, 
and a few other household instruments such as we all 
carry in our pockets nowadays, that, with due allow- 
ance for errors of refraction, the cup will be found 
to occupy a space not remote from the mean of the dis- 
tance between the two handles. That being settled, 
the rest is a mere matter of hydraulics. 

And so, as I say, I like your cup, gentlemen, and I 
hold— rather than with the member who, upon being 
told that its capacity was two quarts, said that they 
might as well have gotten one of a decent size while 
they were about it; that he never did care for ponies 
himself— with that other member who, receiving the 
same information, reflected with honest and pardon- 
able pride that so greatly had the club increased in 
numbers and capacity that that cup would have to be 
filled three hundred and forty times in order to go 
round. 

But I am reminded that I am expected to speak less 
of the cup itself than of the occasion which prompts 
its presentation. I am sorry to have to inflict upon 



42 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

you, upon what is otherwise a festive occasion, an his- 
torical discourse filled of necessity with dry details. It 
will be short, however, for in the endeavor to collect 
materials I have been embarrassed by the fact that 
other secretaries were selected without regard to the 
one great recommendation which, as you all know, gov- 
erned my selection— the extreme legibility of my hand- 
writing. 

The Lotos Club was born, then, ten years since, and 
found a local habitation and a name in Irving Place- 
that unobtrusive thoroughfare which, like the Demo- 
cratic party, has Gramercy Park at one end and 
Tanunany Hall at the other. There was nothing of 
splendor in its accouchement, no silver spoon was in 
its mouth, no largesse was thrown into its cradle. The 
festive board round which its sponsors gathered was a 
literal as well as festive one ; it rested upon two flour- 
barrels, and even these were borrowed. The only prop- 
erty, real and personal, which the club could call its 
own consisted of two candles stuck in two bottles other- 
wise empty. But from that moment, gentlemen, the 
accumulation of property commenced— the candles, it 
is true, were consumed, but the empty bottles increased 
and multiplied. 

It was a modest mansion, gentlemen, in which the 
Lotos first blossomed; it had had its vicissitudes, its 
ups and downs, and, if the Irishism may be pardoned 
me, the downs had been decidedly in the ascendant. 
It had been once or twice a restaurant, oftener a bar- 
room, a '^ Judge and Jury" upon occasion, and erst- 
while a faro-bank. It had been even darkly hinted 
that other and unholier pleasures had not been un- 
sought within its walls, and further back in the first 



ALEXANDER E. MACDONALD 43 

years of its existence we reach the deeper depth and 
find it in the obscure and nefarious vocation of a doc- 
tor's office; and yet in its position there seemed to be 
some fitting indications of the aims and objects of the 
club, for it nestled between the Academy on the one 
side and the gas-office on the other— music and oratory 
surrounded it. 

The regeneration which came to the premises from 
the occupancy of the club was immediate, as is at- 
tested not only by its archives, but those other archives 
kept at the neighboring police station and vulgarly 
known as the ''blotter"— by the latter not so much, 
perhaps, by any diminution of complaints as by a dif- 
ference in their character, and by the comparative ease 
with which they could be met and refuted. For when 
in the afternoon the alarmed neighbor rushed in with 
tidings of a terrible riot at No. 2 Irving Place, the ser- 
geant detailed to investigate found only two artist 
members engaged in mild and reluctant criticism of 
the masterpiece of a third. And when in the early 
morning the indignant neighbor characterized No. 2 
Irving Place as a disorderly house, the resulting posse 
surprised only a quartet of musical members endeav- 
oring to master the intricacies of an original ode to 
the Lotos, composed and dedicated by a fifth. 

But we have changed all that; the process of evolu- 
tion which we inaugurated has continued, the fittest 
has survived, and the house stands there to-day, monu- 
mental, not alone as embodying two of the greatest 
social and educational features of our city and our 
day, but as typifying the unity of nations, the era of 
peace and good- will amongst men— for it is divided 
between a French flat and a German kindergarten. 



44 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

And we, coming three years since to tlie house under 
whose ceilings (now somewhat blackened with the as- 
cending fumes of tobacco and of speech-making) we 
meet to-night, soon, by virtue of a happy system de- 
vised by the House Conunittee, and depending upon a 
combination of small fires and large insurances, placed 
ourselves upon a solid and solvent footing. Here have 
we carried out our purposes, and especially that pur- 
pose to which the president has referred— the enter- 
taining of the stranger. "When he has come to us ac- 
credited in his antecedents and his aims, he has sat 
with us ; when he has not, we have sat upon him. And 
now, with our neighbors over the way and our other 
neighbors, we consecrate the four corners of Twenty- 
first Street and Fifth Avenue to the three most potent 
engines of civilization and liberty and progress — the 
three C's: the club, the church, the clothing-store. 

And so we take your cup, gentlemen, and, remember- 
ing what it commemorates, we drink from it to the 
prosperity of the Lotos Club; but, remembering also 
the goodly brotherhood which has gathered with us 
to wish us God-speed as we enter upon our second 
decade, we ask you, Mr. President, that, as you put 
this virgin chalice to your verging lips, you will dedi- 
cate the first deep draught of the good red wine not 
to the prosperity of the Lotos alone, but to the pros- 
perity of the clubs of New York. May the "Century" 
prove, like its and our own next-door neighbors, stable. 
Though "thirsty 'Lambs' run foxy dangers," may 
they yet escape them; and may they, and we, and all 
of us, dwell together in "Union" and in "Harmony." 



WHITELAW EEID 

AT THE RECEPTION TO THOMAS HUGHES, OCTOBER 30, 1880 

WE are fortunate in the period of our reassem- 
bling. These are the high days of the Ameri- 
can year. The time for brass bands is upon us, and 
the voice of the politician is heard in the land. Some 
of these very gentlemen about this table, mild and 
harmless as they look, are strongly accused of having 
been at it. In fact, there are one or two who are be- 
lieved to be penetrated at this moment with the suspi- 
cion that they have lately been talking quite too much 
politics— or too little. 

"Well, gentlemen, I 'm going to venture in the same 
direction. I modestly hope to accomplish the impos- 
sible. I am going to try to introduce politics on which 
we can all agree, and to say some words about a poli- 
tician whom every man of us will delight to honor. 

I do not speak specially of those features of his nine 
years' Parliamentary career, which his countrymen 
would be most apt to pick out ; of his labors for liberal- 
izing education, for secularizing the great universities, 
for admitting dissenters to the University fellowships, 
for the establishment of the Working-man's College, 
for the disestablishment of the Irish Church, or even 
of his long effort, in and out of Parliament, for the 
extension to the working classes of the beneficent prin- 

45 



46 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

ciple of cooperation. Here he was a leader who could 
count among his followers and earnest supporters such 
men as Canon Kingsley, Professor F. J). Maurice, Lord 
Lytton, and the Marquis of Grey and Ripon. He led 
them to the recognition and practical success of their 
movement in his own country. Pie has now passed far 
beyond them, and led a pioneer English colony to this 
Greater Britain to seek here a fuller expansion on the 
hillsides of our American Switzerland. 

We give him due honor for all his pure and con- 
spicuous public career. We give him hearty admira- 
tion for his brilliant literary work— admiration so gen- 
eral that he need not be surprised if everywhere he 
finds himself confounded with his hero, and half the 
time called Tom Brown instead of Mr. Hughes; or if, 
with democratic familiarity and good will, we insist on 
having a "Tom" in it, anyway. We recall his acting 
as literary godfather with the British public for our 
modest Harvard professor who had just written the 
' ' Biglow Papers ' ' ; and we hope he took some comfort, 
as we did, in seeing his protege accredited Minister 
from the United States to the Court of his Queen. 

But it is to no one of these things that our thoughts 
first turn when, in the height and very crisis of our 
own campaign, we have the opportunity to meet this 
English politician. We remember when the dark days 
were upon us, when we were struggling desperately for 
our life, and looking in vain for sympathy in too many 
quarters where we had a right to expect it. We re- 
member when even Gladstone failed us, misled, we 
know, by his advices, not by his sympathies, and 
proclaimed that Jefferson Davis had founded a nation. 



WHITELAW REID 47 

We remember, also,— aye, we will never forget,— that 
then, among the few sympathizers we found in the rul- 
ing classes of Great Britain, no friendly voice rang 
truer across the Atlantic than that of the generous, 
high-minded Englishman we greet to-night. 

I am glad that he is here now, in the stress and 
storm of our quadrennial contest, when the blood is 
dashing at fever heat through all the national veins. 
I am glad that he is able to see with his own eyes that 
even in our supreme struggle his old trust in our in- 
stitutions is still vindicated— glad that he can see how 
a free people of fifty millions, with liberty of speech, 
of the press, of conscience, and the ballot, cover a con- 
tinent in a day with the majestic power of their suf- 
frage, and peacefully lift to place their own Chief 
Ruler. 

It has been said sometimes that with the war we 
passed our minority, and that on coming of age we 
lost our old anxious care for what was thought of us 
in England. Perhaps it is true. Possibly English 
opinion about our concerns does not affect us now much 
more than American opinion about their concerns af- 
fects Englishmen. But for one thing we do care more, 
if possible, than ever; and it is that fact, I take it, 
which this club wishes to convey to-night to its guest. 

We do care more than ever now for the good will 
and good opinion of those who helped us when we 
needed help. We do care to have them know that 
we have long memories and warm hearts. We wish, 
sir, to make you feel that the Englishman who was our 
friend in 1861 is our brother now. 



THOMAS HUaHES 

AT THE RECEPTION IN HIS HONOR, OCTOBER 30, 1880 1 

YOUR president referred to a dear and very old 
friend of mine, with whom I spent the most de- 
lightful and happy ten days of my life, and that is the 
great poet, the great, the wise philosopher whom you 
have done yourselves the honor, and have done us the 
still greater honor, to send to represent the great Amer- 
ican nation at the Court of St. James. I mean, of 
course, James Russell Lowell. The chairman has told 
you, and I am proud to say it is a fact, that thirty 
years ago, when those first papers known as the ''Big- 
low Papers" began to appear in the journals of your 
country, I came across them, and ^admired them, as any 
man who has any sense of freedom or right in him 
must admire them; and it was the occasion of my first 
communication with Mr. Lowell; and I am proud to 
say that I was the first person who procured an edition 
of those poems in the British Empire, and it is to the 
reading of those poems at that particular period that 
I owe one of the greatest obligations that I ever owed 
to any man or to any writings, for they turned my 
attention to what was going on in this country, and 
raised the deep interest which I have taken ever since 
in the great problems which you are fighting out for 
yourselves and for the whole world in these United 

1 In part. 
48 



THOMAS HUGHES 49 

States. I will not follow the chairman in his allusions 
to the stand which I of course took, having felt the 
magnitude and the nobility of the life which was being 
lived and of the problems which were being worked out 
on this continent— I say I will not follow him in the 
course which I was certain to take when that great 
struggle of yours came on, twenty years ago. We 
can only thank God for the issue of that great strug- 
gle. The chairman has spoken as though it were 
from a purely unselfish motive that I and others, who 
felt the deep significance of that struggle, took the 
side we did and made the effort which we made to 
bring around our own people to a true view of the 
issues which were then at stake— as I said awhile 
ago, not only for this country but for the whole 
world. You were then deciding the future, I be- 
lieve,— the future of the whole world. I believe that 
if that struggle had resulted in any other way than 
that in which it did result, if it had been possible to 
break this great nation into two or into three pieces, the 
cause of freedom would have been lost not only to 
America, but in all the Old World, and not you your- 
selves, loyal to your own country and to freedom, as 
every one of you are— not you yourselves could have 
felt more deeply than I at the end of that great strug- 
gle the truth which the poet to whom I have already 
alluded gave utterance in such noble words, when, at 
the end of that struggle, it became a truth that— 

Now 't will be known from pole to pole. 
Without no need of proclamation, 

Earth's biggest Nation 's got a sonl 
And risen up earth's greatest Nation. 



ULYSSES S. GEANT 

AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, NOVEMBER 20, 1880 

I FEEL very much embarrassed in making any re- 
sponse to the complimentary remarks addressed to 
me by your president. I really don't know what in 
the world I can say about these fine things. They were 
not deserved, I am sure of that. But I don't want to 
convince you that they were not deserved ! If I stand 
here for five minutes, however, I know I shall prove 
to you that one of your president's flattering asser- 
tions at least is untrue. With nothing to justify him 
in making the statement, so far as I know, he charged 
me with being able to make a speech. This is quite 
incorrect. I have no doubt at all that you are partly 
convinced of this already, and certainly I have no 
doubt that before I sit down you will be thoroughly 
convinced of it! Now, in regard to my own future. 
I am entirely satisfied as I am to-day. I am not the 
man to cry out against republics and charge them with 
being ungrateful. I am sure that I have received most 
ample recognition and consideration at the hands of 
the American people as a nation and as individuals. 
I have every reason under the sun, if any person liv- 
ing has, to be satisfied with them. I hope to live many 
years yet of life. I am only forty-eight years old for 
the last ten years! If I can still render my country 

50 



ULYSSES S. GRANT 51 

any service in any way, I shall certainly be happy to do 
SO; but having been, as I have said, forty-eight years 
old for ten past years, I am beyond the age of volun- 
teering. If I am ever wanted in any way again, I 
must be pressed into the service; but, not being ob- 
stinate at all, if you have any reason to think that I 
can be of use anywhere, show me where it is, and I 
will be entirely amenable to reason. 



WHITELAW EEID 

AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, DECEMBER 3, 1881 

THE chief delight of travel, according to an old 
cynic, is in the joy of getting home again. Cer- 
tainly no skies that I saw abroad seemed fairer, no scene 
that I saw in the last six months seemed so bright as the 
Bay of New York, when, after a tempestuous November 
voyage, we at last steamed into it. It is worth while 
to go away to find out how glad you are to get back. 
It is worth while to miss your friends for a time to find 
how warm a welcome home they give you. It is worth 
while to see other lands, to find out how proud you 
ought to be of your own. I don't believe that most of 
us have any such idea of the dignity and honor into 
which we have been born as we are likely to have after 
spending some months on the other side of the Atlantic, 
and seeing how the people regard us. Certainly no 
traveler from these shores could fail, last summer, to 
be made to feel, anywhere in Europe, that he was a 
citizen of no mean country. In many ways his views 
would be rectified and clarified; in many things he 
would have the conceit taken out of him. He could n't 
help finding out that the Old World can still do sev- 
eral things better than the Universal Yankee Nation. 
But neither could he help feeling everywhere the grow- 
ing respect, the admiration even, for the Western 

52 



WHITELAW REID 53 

Colossus that puts down its own rebellion and sets its 
rebels at work at self-government again; that pays its 
own debts, feeds its own people bountifully, with a 
large portion of Europe besides, and turns the current 
of gold from the financial centers of the Old World 
to its own shores. They have a great respect for facts, 
these people with long histories behind them, and the 
traveler in Europe finds it always extremely pleasant 
to hail from America. 

Especially does an American nowadays find it ex- 
tremely pleasant to visit what is felicitously called 
''Our Old Home." Perhaps they did criticize us 
harshly in the old times; perhaps the feeling in Great 
Britain has sometimes been that of an angry parent 
toward a bumptious and unruly child. Now, I am sure 
that no American goes there without being made to 
feel at once that he is with kinsmen, and kinsmen who 
are proud to recognize the relationship. I have some- 
times heard it said that New-Yorkers give a welcome to 
Englishmen that is neither appreciated nor recognized ; 
but no man who thinks this can have been in London in 
the season. 

A friend of mine was once asked what seemed to him 
the most noticeable thing in London. He answered, 
curiously enough, that as noticeable a thing to his mind 
as any was the fact that, in the midst of a population 
of four million souls, he could walk through the very 
heart of this thousand-year-old city nearly four miles, 
from his house to his club, without once leaving the 
public parks! Well, when I was asked what my first 
impression of London was, my reply seemed, no doubt, 
just as inconsequent. What struck me most was that 



54 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

I had hardly yet been able to realize that I was in a 
foreign country. Everything about you is familiar. 
You know the public buildings at sight, almost as 
well as you know those of your own capital. You 
know your way to the Poet's Corner in Westminster 
Abbey better than you do to the grave of Alexander 
Hamilton in sight of Broadway. You 're a great deal 
surer of St. Paul's, when its big dome rises on you out 
of the yellow fog, than many of the gentlemen at this 
table are of any church spire on Manhattan Island. 
So much of what you see for the first time has been 
familiar to you from childhood; so much of what is 
going on is home-like, that sometimes it is only when 
you listen to the speech of those about you, and wonder 
why they don't talk English a little plainer, that you 
wake up to the fact that you are not among your own 
people. 

Another old complaint has been that we are misun- 
derstood, through sheer carelessness, by the English. 
There was a great deal of truth in this, no doubt, at 
one time ; and there was a deal also of youthful impa- 
tience—for, as a nation, we did n't get out of the boy's 
awkward age and attain our majority till we had been 
matured by the trials and triumph of the war. But 
certainly no one can complain that his country is 
ignored or negligently regarded now. Among literary, 
artistic, political, and social leaders there is generally 
a most cordial and hearty interest in those whom they 
so often describe as their American cousins. The 
American is sure to find more or less of the same feel- 
ing in the clubs, or among artists, actors, and writers 
like Alma Tadema, Irving, TroUope, or Charles Reade. 



WHITELAW REID 55 

Our own men, Henry James, for example, and Julian 
Hawthorne, seem fairly domesticated, not to say 
adopted, in London ; and so is Moncure Conway, though 
more aggressively American and radical than if he 
had been born in Massachusetts instead of Virginia. 
In the government, the brilliant Home Secretary, Sir 
William Vernon Harcourt, rightly enough, describes 
himself sometimes as half American. One of the most 
accomplished among the younger peers, the Earl of 
Kosebery, knows America and American politics better 
than many a New-Yorker. And, not to mention scores 
of others, the foremost of our friends when we needed 
friendship more than we do now, was John Bright, a 
name never to be spoken by American lips without 
affectionate gratitude. 



HOEACE PORTEE 

AT THE DINNER TO WHITELAW REID, DECEMBER 3, 1881 

SINCE I last had the pleasure to break bread with 
you and the gentlemen here assembled at this hos- 
pitable board, in a moment of unrestrained reckless- 
ness you were indiscreet enough to constitute me a 
member of this brotherhood; and while I cannot be 
of any service here, either in a useful or an ornamental 
capacity, I assure you that I come here to-night with 
all the willingness and accommodating nature of that 
young man who was going home very late at night from 
a scene of conviviality, perhaps not so hilarious as this, 
but something like this, with a companion. As they 
went along the country road they meandered around 
in a zigzag manner till finally one of them slipped 
down into the ditch. He called upon his friend for a 
helping hand. His friend, who was balancing himself 
on his heels in the middle of the road, said, ''N-n-no, 
Charlie; I am not equal to that, but I will come and 
lie down with you." Now, while I do not know that 
I can be of any assistance in this club, I am specially 
willing to-night to sit down with you. 

We meet under unusual circumstances. While in 
any remarks of mine I do not hope to exhaust the sub- 
ject, I have no doubt I shall the listeners. You have 
introduced to-night, and I congratulate you upon it, 

56 



HORACE PORTER 57 

a very favorable innovation upon the custom of New 
York society by giving a dinner of welcome upon the 
return of our friend, instead of giving a farewell din- 
ner to him upon his departure ; for so exasperating has 
the latter custom become in New York that many 
persons go to such farewell dinners imbued with the 
idea— indeed, on an express understanding— that the 
recipient is bound to leave the country within twenty- 
four hours. And sometimes such is the character of 
the proceedings at these farewell meetings that it puts 
every one there in the notion of doing the same thing. 
Not many months ago, yet it seems it is a good while, 
the distinguished head of this club took his departure 
from our shores under tender circumstances. I don't 
know how such an event would be looked upon in jour- 
nalistic circles, but from a railroad standpoint it is 
always deemed a wise and prudent measure to get off 
a single and switch to a double track. The company 
in which he went to Europe was, like the books in Cur- 
ran 's library, not numerous, but select. The journals 
of the day, with a degree of perspicuity and particu- 
larity which should be consistent with modern jour- 
nalistic enterprise, did not fail to furnish us with a 
great many interesting details in regard to the manner 
of his sudden taking off. If I forget not, they even 
told us the exact color of the trousers that were worn 
on that occasion, and I think that, in reference to that, 
they did mention that they were of some delicate shade 
that would satisfy the most exacting assthetic taste in 
dress. They did not, however, tell us whether he had 
the forethought to give those instructions to his tailor 
which Mr. Joshua Butterby gave to his artisan on a 



58 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

somewhat similar occasion, when he instructed him to 
make them wide around the waist, so as to leave a 
margin for emotion and the wedding breakfast. 

Now, if our president had taken a westerly trip it 
would have been a matter of no surprise to us, but it 
is a matter that requires explanation even to his most 
intimate friends that a young man brought up in the 
severe school of the ''New- York Tribune" should so 
far forget the patriotic maxims of its founder as to go 
east. I can readily understand why he, like most of 
our prominent men, should cross the ocean; most of 
our public men think that they will add somewhat to 
their reputations to cross the water, particularly when 
they recollect how it added to the reputation of George 
Washington, even, merely to cross the Delaware. Be- 
sides, there are many advantages which the modern 
traveler has, which did not exist in the olden time, 
through the plan adopted by steamship companies of 
particular lane routes. A vessel goes to Europe by 
one route and returns by a different channel, and so the 
voyager gets treated to an entire change of scenery. 
The monotony of the return voyage is alleviated; the 
eye is not compelled to rest on the familiar objects 
which it saw when outward bound. Of course there 
are drawbacks. The American stomach is given to 
such gastronomical gymnastics that a man's nourish- 
ment is very apt to be in the condition of a financial 
question in Congress— liable to come up at any mo- 
ment. Before he reaches the end of his trip he is so 
nauseated at the very sight of whitecaps that he can 
hardly look at the caps of the French nurses in Paris 
without feeling seasick. However, it is no part of my 



^'s^s:-:M-'' ■■■■ -. 



Horace Porter 



HORACE PORTER 59 

intention to allude to French, nurses. Our president, 
no doubt, spent most of his time comparing the differ- 
ent forms of government, both national and domestic, 
no doubt pointing out to people there the great ad- 
vantages of our government over the effete mon- 
archies of Europe. He of course paid great attention 
to the proceedings in Parliament, comparing them with 
those in Congress. Well, I don't know which gains 
the advantage over the other; they sit with their hats 
on and cough, while in Congress they sit with their 
hats off and spit. I am glad to see my friend Judge 
Robertson participating in the festivities consequent 
upon our friend's return; I don't know of any one 
who always takes such an interest in the affairs of 
any one coming to this country as the Collector of the 
Port. 

Now, gentlemen, our guest has given us to-night a 
very striking and noble example of the sacrificing and 
amiable nature of the gentler sex. He is here now, 
notwithstanding the great change which has taken 
place in his condition— he is still permitted to come 
within the walls of this club. Women are naturally 
opposed to a club, since the first woman's favorite son 
was killed with one. The first woman learned that it 
was Cain that raised a club; the modern woman has 
discovered that it is a club that raises Cain. With 
this noble example before our eyes, I hope that some 
bachelors whom I see sitting around the room will, be- 
fore the hair disappears from their heads altogether, 
ere their bent forms are made to crouch still more, and 
the tenderness and feeling and sentiment of their lives 
vanish, imitate our guest, and not allow their lives to 



60 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

be embittered with the recollection of unkissed kisses 
and undrunk drinks. 

A distinguished politician — I should say statesman 
—of Pennsylvania was some time ago walking up in 
the direction of the Academy of Music the day that 
they were having a political convention in the hall. 
He met one of his trusty lieutenants, followed by 
about fifty of the "boys." They were dressed some- 
what after the manner of Falstaff's army, and they 
had in their hands bricks, clubs, cobblestone ram- 
mers, and everything of that description they could 
find. The Governor said to him: "Where are you 
going with the gang ? ' ' Said he : " Governor, I thought 
it would be well to have some of the boys sitting 
around in the gallery to-day. I thought that maybe 
you would perhaps want to make a motion in the con- 
vention, and thought it was best to have some of our 
friends around prepared to coincide." Thus it comes 
about that I am here this evening, and in whatever 
way you shall show your kindly greetings to your presi- 
dent I am prepared most heartily to coincide. 



OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES 

AT AN INFORMAL REUNION, APRIL 14, 1883 

THE best thing I can do, in answer to this wholly 
unexpected reception, is to speak to you from my 
heart such words as come to my lips. I have been 
staggered, I have been stunned, by my reception in 
New York. I did not, I had no right to expect such 
a reception among those who were strangers to me. 
Many of those whom I have met I knew by reputation 
(of course many of my profession I knew) ; as I say, 
many I knew by reputation, but almost all were stran- 
gers, and yet their faces look like the faces of friends 
wherever I turn. 

I had no idea, not for a moment a thought, of rising 
to-night, and you really do not know what a helpless 
creature you have before you. The wildest imagina- 
tion can hardly conceive of the impression of utter 
imbecility that comes over me when I rise without my 
accustomed shield, without which I never trust myself 
on my native heather. The ancient Briton— this sounds 
dreadfully like a made-up speech, but I assure you that 
it is not. There is the truthful Dr. Fordyce Barker, 
whose countenance speaks for itself. It could not hold 
a lie— his whiskers would turn red on the spot. He will 
say that I am perfectly truthful. I never trust myself 
upon an occasion of this sort without, like the ancient 

61 



62 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

Briton I referred to— without bringing a shield to hold 
up before me ; for generally about this time I slip my 
hand in my pocket and draw out something that looks 
terribly like a little copy of verses. 

In thinking of what I should say, I bethink me 
of a few reminiscences of the Saturday Club of Bos- 
ton, to which for the last twenty-five years I have 
belonged. It has been in its time a very beautiful 
and instructive assemblage of men, when at one end 
of the table sat always Longfellow, with his sweet, 
benignant, classic countenance, not coruscating so 
much as beautifully receptive. It was a mild, kind, 
natural light, for he was a man lovely to look upon 
and listen to; but as compared with the other end of 
the table he was moonlight to the flashing of the me- 
teor, for there was the round, hearty, athletic form of 
Agassiz, wdtli that splendid laugh, and of all the gifts 
to a man at the table perhaps a good laugh, aided by 
a tolerable corporation, is the most effective in the 
long run, and Agassiz 's laugh used to ring from the 
other end of the table. For twenty years we had 
this. Then we had Mr. Emerson, with his mild, quiet, 
critical, observing look, almost always in his place. 
Then we would have our great mathematician, Peirce, 
sitting there. A thought used to go round and round 
in his interior so that after you asked him half a 
dozen questions the answer to the first would finally 
come out! Then we had Lowell, always full of light, 
of ambition, of satirical wit, and full of knowledge 
and information also. Then we had my beautiful 
friend Motley, one of the finest-looking creatures that 
ever was in the world, and who interested everybody. 



OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES 63 

Then rarely, but once in a while, sat Hawthorne among 
us. I used to get near him if I could. Mr. Tom Ap- 
plet on— some of you know the name almost as well as 
you know the name of— Tr avers, is n't it? That is 
the man you have here in New York, I believe. Well, 
Tom Appleton said to me once, "Hawthorne is like a 
boned pirate." Well, without thinking of that at the 
time, I remember, after sitting by Hawthorne, to have 
said of him that in order to get anything out of him 
I had to harpoon him like a whale to get a question 
from his blubber. 

So much for the Saturday Club. It was one of the 
greatest privileges of my life to meet with its mem- 
bers. It met once a month. It was not a costly club, 
but we dined at Parker's and had enough to keep 
us in heart and tolerably good spirits. But I will 
tell you what that club was to me, in the feeling 
that doubtless this club is the same to all of you. 
It was a gamut of human intelligence. There I could 
go and touch the note I wanted and find its chord. I 
will tell you also that there was a rule for salvation. 
If this was a club in Chicago and not in New York I 
should lay it down as a lesson, but I came here to be 
taught and not to teach. The salvation of that club 
has been this— that, in the first place, there was no such 
thing known there as full dress, and in the next place 
there were no laws and no speech-making. In all my 
experience of the Saturday Club, throughout a quarter 
of a century, I do not remember anything of a formal 
or stuck-up character except on two occasions. The 
first was when Longfellow wrote a few verses to Agas- 
siz. Charming, sweet little verses they were! Oh, it 



64 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

was like a young maiden going to confirmation ! And 
the second time I was there when my friend Motley 
was leaving on one of his missions, and I did read a 
few verses to him. I do not remember any other time 
in which any man had the audacity to get up on his 
legs and insult that association of harmless but well- 
meaning people. 

Now, gentlemen, I have said all that I ought, and a 
great deal more. I can only add that at the period of 
life at which I have arrived it is naturally a very grati- 
fying thing to feel that the sunset looks bright. I ex- 
pect nothing more like this reception that I have had 
in New York so long as I live. It never will be re- 
peated. It never could be repeated. It is an unpar- 
alleled thing, not merely in my experience, but in my 
anticipations and my imagination, and it is unneces- 
sary for me to say here or anywhere that I go home 
with my heart full, not merely of New York associa- 
tions, but of American associations and feelings, be- 
cause I am here in a representative country and I know 
that if there are kind hearts here I shall find them 
everywhere. I go home with feelings that it is quite 
idle for me to try to put into language or to attempt 
to adorn by any efforts at rhetoric. 



WILLIAM M. EYAETS 

AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, FEBRUARY 21, 1885 
[Mr. Evarts had just been elected United States Senator for New York] 

I HAVE never been able to understand the Lotos 
Club. You seem to have the advantage of me alto- 
gether ; for you have learned a great many things about 
me— if we may believe your president— and before I get 
through perhaps you will learn some other things ; but 
about you what can I learn? What is there to be 
known, that can be written and set down, either as an 
encouragement or as a warning? I know that you 
have no debt ; and that shows, of course, that you have 
no credit. I know that you have no wealth; and I 
know that poverty, in this world, is the best incentive 
to genius and growth. But these traits have marked 
many men and many associations; and I have looked 
to find the charms that have made you the most popu- 
lar, the most prosperous, the most charming, the most 
useful, the most graceful, and the most powerful asso- 
ciation in this city. It rests in this, I am sure, and no 
one will gainsay me in the proposition— it rests in the 
fact that you have no principles ! In your march there 
are no impedimenta to encumber your progress ; for the 
particular occasion that should make it the most bril- 
liant and most instructive, you are under no embarrass- 
ment in respect to any cohesion or any consistency. You 
5 65 



66 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

are therefore as unconscious in your perfume and in 
your beauty as the rose ; if you fade to-morrow, from the 
same stem another flower will grow. Nor is this ab- 
sence of principles to be set down at all as an immoral 
thing. One of the great maxims in morality which I 
learned as early as I could learn and understand it in 
a learned tongue— "Obsta principiis" (''Opposed to 
all principles")— is the maxim of your club. And 
fortunately for me, by a wise confinement of this re- 
pugnance to abstractions it is that I am permitted to 
be a guest at your feast, although you cannot pretend 
that I am a man without principles. 

Chauncey Depew— whom I refer to by that name 
because he is better appreciated by that name than by 
any other— and I had a conference yesterday with ref- 
erence to an entertainment that was expected to be 
very brilliant, and before a very choice and fastidious 
company, as to what was the best time that the speeches 
(as he and I were to be the only speakers) should 
be made, and we concluded that the best time to make 
the speeches would be as they stood around the supper- 
table, and had prepared themselves, as a fruitful soil, 
for the seed that we were to sow; and I put it upon 
this proposition: That although it was laid down in 
Scripture that ''out of the fulness of the heart the 
mouth speaketh," yet that better perhaps than even 
that, out of the fulness of the mouth the heart speaketh. 
And that we found last night, for if ever there was a 
good speech made before a select audience, it was made 
last night by Chauncey Depew ; and if there ever was 
a better one made, it was made by myself ! 

Well, there are a great many things to be done in 



WILLIAM M. EVARTS 67 

the course of the next six years ; and my first duty, as 
I feel, to the State as senator is to enjoy myself as 
well as I can. It would be unworthy of a great State 
like this to have a senator open to observation by all 
his rivals and to the notice of the press and of the peo- 
ple, if I did not enjoy myself. It is well known that I 
possess certain faculties and appetites for enjoyment, 
and it would be a reproach which the State would not 
willingly bear if my enjoyment were quenched from 
the infirmities and faults of the State itself! And, 
then, I have this great advantage— that as nothing can 
add to the relative importance of this State comparable 
with the other States of the Union, I shall have no occa- 
sion and shall make no attempt to illustrate and glorify 
it. Other senators may wish to spread to their admir- 
ing countrymen the greatness, the strength, and the 
virtue of their respective States ; I should be but gild- 
ing the refined gold and painting this large tiger lily 
—the State of New York— and I shall not attempt to 
do that. But, in reference to the obscure and modest 
portion of our countrymen, it will be my duty to raise 
and ennoble, to illustrate and glorify them. 



HENEY M. STANLEY 

AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, NOVEMBER 27, 1886 

ONE might start a great many principles and ideas 
which would require to be illustrated and drawn 
out in order to present a picture of my feelings at the 
present moment. I am conscious that in my immediate 
vicinity there are people who were great when I was 
little. I remember very well, when I was unknown to 
anybody, how I was sent to report a lecture delivered 
by my friend right opposite, George Alfred Townsend, 
and I remember the manner in which he said, ' ' Galileo 
said, ' The world moves round, ' and the world does move 
round," upon the platform of the Mercantile Hall in 
St. Louis— one of the grandest things out! The next 
great occasion when I had to come before the public 
was that of Mark Twain's lecture on the Sandwich 
Islands, which I was sent to report. And when I look 
to my left here I see Colonel Anderson, whose very 
face gives me an idea that Bennett has got some tele- 
graphic despatch and is just about to send me to some 
terrible region on some desperate commission. And of 
course you are aware that it was owing to the proprie- 
tor and editor of a newspaper that I dropped the pacific 
garb of a journalist and donned the costume of an 
African traveler. It was not for me, one of the least 
in the newspaper corps, to question the newspaper pro- 



HENRY M. STANLEY 69 

prietor's motives. He was an able editor, very rich, 
desperately despotic. He commanded a great army of 
roving writers, people of fame in the news-gathering 
world; men who had been everywhere and had seen 
everything, from the bottom of the Atlantic to the top 
of the very highest mountain; men who were as ready 
to give their advice to national cabinets as they were 
ready to give it to the smallest police courts in the 
United States. I belonged to this class of roving writ- 
ers, and can truly say that I did my best to be con- 
spicuously great in it by an untiring devotion to my 
duties, an untiring indef atigability, as though the ordi- 
nary rotation of the universe depended upon my single 
endeavors. 

If, as some of you suspect, the enterprise of the able 
editor was only inspired with a view to obtain the larg- 
est circulation, my unyielding and guiding motive, if 
I remember rightly, was to win his favor by doing with 
all my might that duty to which, according to the Eng- 
lish State Church catechism, it had pleased God to 
call me. 

He first despatched me to Abyssinia— straight from 
Missouri to Abyssinia! What a stride, gentlemen! 
People who live west of the Missouri River have 
scarcely, I think, much knowledge of Abyssinia, and 
there are gentlemen here who can vouch for me in that. 
But it seemed to Mr. Bennett a very ordinary thing, 
and it seemed to his agent in London a very ordinary 
thing indeed. So I, of course, followed suit. I took 
it as a very ordinary thing also, and I went to Abys- 
sinia, and somehow or another good luck followed me, 
and my telegrams reporting the fall of Magdala hap- 



70 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

pened to be a week ahead of the British Government's. 
The people said I had done right well, though the 
London papers said I was an impostor. The sec- 
ond thing I was aware of was that I was ordered to 
Crete to run the blockade, and describe the Cretan re- 
bellion from the Cretan side and from the Turkish side ; 
and then I was sent to Spain to report from the Re- 
publican side and from the Carlist side, perfectly dis- 
passionately. 

And then, all of a sudden, I was sent for to come to 
Paris. Then Mr. Bennett, in that despotic way of his, 
said: ^'I want you to go and find Livingstone." As 
I tell you, I was a mere newspaper reporter. I dared 
not confess my soul as my own. Mr. Bennett merely 
said, ' ' Go, ' ' and I went. He gave me a glass of cham- 
pagne, and I thought that was superb. I confessed my 
duty to him, and I went. And, as good luck would 
have it, I found Livingstone. 

I returned, as a good citizen ought, and as a good 
reporter ought, and as a good newspaper correspondent 
ought, to tell the tale, and, arriving at Aden, I tele- 
graphed a request that I might be permitted to visit civ- 
ilization before I went to China. I came to civilization ; 
and what do you think was the result ? Why, only to 
find that all the world disbelieved my story. Dear me ! 
If I were proud of anything, sir, it was that what I 
said wa^ a fact; that whatever I said I would do, I 
would endeavor to do with all my might, or, as many 
a good man had done before, as my predecessors had 
done, lay my bones behind. That 's all. I was re- 
quested, in an offhand manner— just as any member 
of the Lotos Club here present would say— "Would 



HENRY M. STANLEY 71 

you mind giving us a little resume of your geographical 
work?" I said: ''Not in the least, my dear sir; I 
have n't the slightest objection." And do you know 
that to make it perfectly geographical and not in the 
least sensational I took particular pains and I wrote 
a paper out, and when it was printed it was just about 
an inch long. It contained about a hundred polysyl- 
labic African w^ords. And yet, ' ' for a ' that and a ' that, ' ' 
the pundits of the Geographical Society, the Brighton 
Association, said that they had n't come to listen to any 
sensational stories, but that they had come to listen 
to facts. Well, now, an old gentleman, very reverend, 
full of years and honors, learned in Cufic inscriptions 
and cuneiform characters, wrote to the ''Times," stat- 
ing that it was not Stanley who had discovered Living- 
stone, but that it was Livingstone who had discovered 
Stanley. 

[Mr. Stanley then alluded to the unbelief in his dis- 
coveries prevailing at that time in New York, and 
continued :] 

If it had not been for that unbelief I don't believe 
I should ever have visited Africa again. I should have 
become, or I should have endeavored to become, with 
Mr. Reid's permission, a conservative member of the 
Lotos Club. I should have settled down and become 
as steady and as stolid as some of these patriots that 
you have around here. I should have said nothing 
offensive. I should have done some "treating." I 
should have offered a few a cigar, and on Saturday 
night, perhaps, I should have opened a bottle of cham- 
pagne and distributed it among my friends. But that 
was not to be. 



72 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

I left New York for Spain, and then the Ashantee 
War broke out, and once more my good luck followed 
me, and I got the treaty of peace ahead of everybody 
else ; and as I was coming to England from the Ashan- 
tee War a telegraphic despatch was put into my hands 
at the island of St. Vincent saying that Livingstone 
was dead ! I said : "What does this mean to me? The 
New-Yorkers don't believe in me. How shall I prove 
that what I have said is true ? By George ! I will go 
and complete Livingstone's work. I will prove that 
the discovery of Livingstone was a mere flea-bite. I 
will prove to them that I am a good man and true." 
That 's all that I wanted. I accompanied Living- 
stone's remains to Westminster Abbey. I saw buried 
the remains of the man whom I had left sixteen months 
before enjoying full life and abundant hope. The 
"Daily Telegraph's" proprietor cabled over to Ben- 
nett: "Will you join us in sending Stanley over to 
complete Livingstone's explorations?" Bennett re- 
ceived the telegram in New York, read it, pondered a 
moment, snatched a blank, and wrote, "Yes. Bennett." 

That was my commission, and I set out to Africa, in- 
tending to complete Livingstone's explorations, also to 
settle the Nile problem as to where the head waters of 
the Nile were, as to whether Lake Victoria consisted of 
one lake, one body of water, or a number of shallow 
lakes; to throw some light on Sir Samuel Baker's Al- 
bert Nyanza, and also to discover the outlet of Lake 
Tanganyika, and then to find out what strange, mys- 
terious river this was which had lured Livingstone on 
to his death— whether it was the Nile, the Niger, or the 
Congo. Edwin Arnold, the author of "The Light of 



HENRY M. STANLEY 73 

Asia/' said, "Do you think you can do all this?" 
"Don't ask me such a conundrum as that. Put down 
the funds and tell me to go. That 's all." And he 
induced Lawson, the proprietor, to consent. The funds 
were had, and I went. 

First of all, we settled the problem of the Victoria 
—that it was one body of water ; that instead of being 
a cluster of shallow lakes or marshes, it was one body 
of water, 21,500 square miles in extent. "While en- 
deavoring to throw light upon Sir Samuel Baker's Al- 
bert Nyanza we discovered a new lake, a much superior 
lake to Albert Nyanza— the Dead Locust Lake— and 
at the same time Gordon Pasha sent his lieutenant to 
discover and circumnavigate the Albert Nyanza, and 
he found it to be only a miserable one hundred and 
forty miles, because Baker, in a fit of enthusiasm, had 
stood on the brow of a high plateau and, looking down 
on the dark-blue waters of Albert Nyanza, cried ro- 
mantically :" I see it extending indefinitely toward the 
southwest!" "Indefinitely" is not a geographical ex- 
pression, gentlemen. 

We found that there was no outlet to the Tangan- 
jdka, although it was a sweet-water lake. After set- 
tling that problem, day after day, as we glided down 
the strange river that had lured Livingstone to his 
death, we were in as much doubt as Livingstone had 
been when he wrote his last letter and said: "I will 
never be made black man 's meat for anything less than 
the classic Nile." After traveling four hundred miles 
we came to the Stanley Falls, and beyond them we saw 
the river deflect from its Nileward course toward the 
northwest. Then it turned west, and then visions of 



74 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

towers and towns and strange tribes and strange na- 
tions broke upon our imagination, and we wondered 
what we were going to see, when the river suddenly 
took a decided turn toward the southwest, and our 
dreams were put an end to. We saw then that it was 
aiming directly for the Congo, and when we had pro- 
pitiated some natives whom we encountered by show- 
ing them some crimson beads and polished wire that 
had been polished for the occasion, we said : ^ ' This for 
your answer. What river is this?" "Why, it is the 
river, of course." That was not an answer, and it 
required some persuasion before the chief, bit by bit, 
digging into his brain, managed to roll out sonorously 
the words: "It is the Ko-to-yah Congo"— "It is the 
river of Congoland." 

Alas for our classic dreams! Alas for Crophi and 
Mophi, the fabled fountains of Herodotus! Alas for 
the banks of the river where Moses was found by the 
daughter of Pharaoh! This is the parvenu Congo! 
Then we glided on and on, past strange nations and 
cannibals— not past those nations which have their 
heads under their arms— for eleven hundred miles, 
until we arrived at a circular extension of the river, 
and my last remaining companion called it Stanley 
Pool, and then, five months after that, our journey 
ended. 

After that I had a very good mind to come back to 
America and say, like the Queen of Uganda, "There, 
what did I tell you?" But you know the fates would 
not permit me to come over in 1878. The very day I 
landed in Europe the King of Italy gave me an express 
train to convey me to France, and the very moment I 
descended from it at Marseilles there were three am- 



HENRY M. STANLEY 75 

bassadors from the King of the Belgians asking me 
to go back to Africa. 

''What ! Back to Africa? Never ! I have come for 
civilization. I have come for enjoyment. I have come 
for love, for life, for pleasure. Not I. Go and ask 
some of those people you know who have never been 
to Africa before. I have had enough of it." ''Well, 
perhaps by and by—" "Ah, I don't know just what 
will happen by and by, but just now never, never! 
Not for Rothschild's wealth!" 

I was received by the Paris Geographical Society, 
and it was then I began to feel, "Well, after all, I 
have done something, have n't I?" I felt superb. 
But you know I have always considered myself a re- 
publican. I have those bullet-riddled flags and those 
arrow-torn flags, the Stars and Stripes, that I car- 
ried in Africa for the discovery of Livingstone, and 
that crossed Africa, and I venerate those old flags. 
I have them in London now, jealously guarded in 
the secret recesses of my cabinet. I allow only my 
very best friends to look at them, and if any of you 
gentlemen ever happen in at my quarters I will show 
them to you. 

After I had written my book "Through the Dark 
Continent" I began to lecture, using these words: "I 
have passed through a land watered by the largest 
river of the African continent, and that land knows 
no owner. A word to the wise is sufficient. You have 
cloths and hardware, and glassware and gunpowder, 
and those millions of natives have ivory and gums and 
rubber and dyestuffs, and in barter there is good 
profit!" 

The King of the Belgians commissioned me to go to 



76 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

that country. My expedition when we started from 
the coast numbered three hundred colored people and 
fourteen Europeans. We returned with three thou- 
sand trained black men and three hundred Europeans. 
The first sum allowed me was $50,000 a year, but it has 
ended at something like $700,000 a year. Thus you see 
the progress of civilization. We found the Congo hav- 
ing only canoes. To-day there are eight steamers. It 
was said at first that King Leopold was a dreamer. 
He dreamed he could unite the barbarians of Africa 
into a confederacy and call it a free state; but on 
February 25, 1885, the powers of Europe, and Amer- 
ica also, ratified an act recognizing the territories ac- 
quired by us to be the free and independent State of 
the Congo. 

Perhaps when the members of the Lotos Club have 
reflected a little more upon the value of what Living- 
stone and Leopold have been doing, they will also agree 
that these men have done their duty in this world and 
in the age in which they live, and that their labor has 
not been in vain on account of the great sacrifices they 
have made to the benighted millions of dark Africa. 



WHITBLAW REID 

AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, APRIL 27, 1889 

[Mr. Reid had retired at this time from the presidency of the Club, having been 
appointed as Minister to France.] 

IT is a great pleasure to be your guest to-night. It 
would be a greater pleasure to me if I could feel 
that in any degree I deserved the generous words your 
president has used concerning me, or the flattering cor- 
diality with which you have received them. 

And yet it is no new experience. "When I had 
scarcely been inside your club-house half a dozen times 
you made me your president, and for fourteen terms in 
all you have annually renewed that honor. Through 
the whole period of my membership, in fair weather or 
in foul, through good report and through evil report 
—and I have had my full share of both in this town— 
the Lotos Club has always been a home where friends 
surrounded and constant good will pursued me. 

You have been good enough to mention with ap- 
proval the nomination to a foreign post with which the 
President has honored me. The kindness with which 
that nomination has been received here, where all are 
friends, and the similar kindness shown alike by friends 
and foes in the press and in the community, have 
touched me deeply. It is now twenty-one years since 
I began work in New York. During that whole time 

77 



78 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

the journal with which I was connected has been wag- 
ing a constant and unequal warfare— sometimes quite 
single-handed, and generally pretty lonely— and there 
have been ugly blows given and taken. To find at the 
end of it, the entire press of the city, with exceptions 
too slight to be noted, uniting in approval of the ap- 
pointment and in most generous treatment of myself— 
this, Mr. President, is a distinction indeed, and one 
which I value more highly than the office itself. And 
now, on the eve of my departure, the greetings of this 
club, the presence of this distinguished company of 
representative men, the good will of all, which you have 
so felicitously expressed, will be to me always a price- 
less remembrance. More, perhaps, than many men, I 
know how to value it. For I know well this great city 
in which I have worked so long ; I know her merchants, 
her professional men and her politicians, her men of 
letters and her men of leisure, her artists, her artisans, 
and her laboring men. I know her clubs and I know 
her churches. I am a citizen of no mean city, and to 
bear, even in a small degree, the approval of such a 
community is to wear a decoration that should gratify 
any man's ambition. 

It is an untried field that lies before me, and one 
not to be entered without some misgivings. I am to 
succeed an accomplished gentleman familiar by early 
associations and long residence with the beautiful capi- 
tal and the great people of France. If I fail, as may 
well happen, in many ways to equal the distinguished 
service he has rendered, perhaps New-Yorkers will for- 
give some of the shortcomings at the legation, in view 
of the fact that they find there one who is at least no 



WHITELAW REID 79 

stranger to them, and whom they have often forgiven 
before. 

There has been no time, Mr. President, during my 
long term of office here when I should not have been 
summarily turned out if party lines had been drawn 
upon me. Among the many sins of the Democratic 
party, gentlemen, this also may be counted, that for 
fourteen years Democratic votes have kept me in the 
presidency of this club. It is a pleasure to recall the 
fact at the moment when I am ceasing to be inde- 
pendent and am assuming obligations due alike to all 
parties and to all sections. Even my dearest foe, the 
Mugwump, is an American citizen, and so I have be- 
come his servant. 

It is a great privilege to represent the Eepublic 
abroad. But there are two other privileges involved 
which are not to be despised, either: the privilege of 
being made to feel at home by receiving the visits of 
your traveling countrymen, and the priceless privilege 
of being able to resign and come home when you wish. 

Please don't consider me, however, as naming the 
date. You remember the story Judge Noah Davis tells 
about his old friend Judge Grover of the Court of Ap- 
peals. He had a neighbor. Farmer Jones, who, to his 
amazement, was nominated for the Assembly. Judge 
Grover doubted Jones's fitness, but thought he would 
try to secure the main point, and so wrote, saying, ''I 
do beg of you, if you come to Albany, to pledge me 
that you will remain honest." Promptly, by return 
mail, came back Farmer Jones's reply. He would do 
anything he could to oblige Judge Grover, but if he 
took this office he must take it absolutely without 



80 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

pledges! Gentlemen aspirants, please to understand 
that if I do speak of the right of resignation, I am not 
making any pledge! It would argue astonishing mis- 
conceptions of the office and of one's self to assume 
that any American could fail to value the place first 
made illustrious by Benjamin Franklin, and honored 
since by a long line of distinguished men — among 
whose names not the least brilliant are the latest, those 
of Bigelow, "Washburne, Noyes, Morton, and McLane. 
Incredible would be the dullness of the man who did 
not prize the distinction of representing his country at 
the most brilliant capital of Europe, to that marvelous 
people who have so often swayed the destinies of the 
Old World, and have left so enduring and beneficent a 
record in the history of the New World— our one his- 
toric ally, faithful through a century of unbroken 
friendship, and doubly endeared to us now by kindred 
government and common aspirations. 

The land of sunshine and of song, — 

Her name your hearts divine, — 
To her this banquet's vows belong 

Whose breasts have poured its wine : 

Our trusty friend, our true ally, 
Through varied change and chance 5 

So fill your flashing goblets high — 
I give you, " Vive la France ! " 

Once more the land of arms and arts, 

Of glory, grace, romance. 
Her love lies deep in all our hearts. 

God bless her, '' Vive la France ! " 



Chester S. Lord 



SIR EDWIN ARNOLD 

AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, OCTOBER 31, 1891 

IN rising to return my sincere thanks for the high 
honor done to me by this magnificent banquet, by 
its lavish opulence of welcome, by its goodly company, 
by the English so far too flattering which has been 
employed by the president, and by the generous 
warmth with which you have received my name, I 
should be wholly unable to sustain the heavy burden 
of my gratitude but for a consideration of which I 
will presently speak. To-night must always be for me 
indeed a memorable occasion. Many a time and oft 
during the seven lustrums composing my life I have 
had personal reason to rejoice at the splendid mistake 
committed by Christopher Columbus in discovering 
your famous and powerful country. When his cara- 
vels put forth from our side of the Atlantic he had no 
expectation whatever, contrary to the general belief 
and statement, of discovering a new world. He was at 
that time thinking of and searching for a very ancient 
land, the Empire of Xipangu, or Japan, at that era 
much and mysteriously talked about by Marco Polo 
and other travelers, but by a splendid blunder he 
stumbled upon America. I have good reason to greet 
his name in memory, apart from certain other not un- 
important results of his error, owing, as I do, to him 
6 81 



82 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

the prodigious debt of a dear American wife, now with 
God, of children half American and half English, of 
countless friends, of a large part of such literary repu- 
tation as I possess, and, to crown all, for this memor- 
able evening, which of itself would be enough to re- 
ward me for more than I have done, and to encourage 
me in a much more arduous task than even that which 
I have undertaken. 

I am to-night the proud and happy guest of a club 
celebrated all over the world for its brilliant fellow- 
ship, its broad enlightenment, and its large and gra- 
cious hospitalities. I see around me here those who 
worthily reflect by their weight, their learning, their 
social, civil, literary, artistic, and professional achieve- 
ments and accomplishments, the best intellect of this 
vast and noble land; and I have been pleasantly made 
aware that other well-known Americans, although ab- 
sent in person, are present in spirit to-night at this 
board. Comprehending these things as I do, and by 
the significance which underlies them, it is a special 
regret that I do not command such a gift of easy speech 
as seems indigenous to this country, for truly it ap- 
pears to me that almost every cultured American gen- 
tleman, and many that are not cultured, are born pow- 
erful and persuasive orators. How, lacking this, can 
I hope to give any adequate utterance to the gratitude, 
the respect, the deep amity, the ardent good will with 
which my heart is laden? An Arab proverb says, 
* ' The camel knows himself when he goes under a moun- 
tain," and if I have sometimes flattered myself that 
much duty and long habitude with the world and its 
leaders had made me in some slight degree master of 



SIR EDWIN ARNOLD 83 

my native tongue, the tumult of pride and pleasure 
which fills my breast at this hour makes me under- 
stand that I must not trust to-night to my unpractised 
powers, and must rely almost entirely on your bound- 
less kindness and assured indulgence. 

Indeed, gentlemen, I think I should become at once 
inarticulate and take refuge in the safe retreat of 
silence but for that consideration of which I spoke in 
the beginning. One can never tell what excellent 
things a man might have said who holds his tongue, 
and I remember with what agreement I heard Mr. 
Lowell at the Savage Club, in London, remark that all 
of his best speeches were made in the carriage going 
home at night. But I have not the conceit to believe 
that your splendid welcome of this evening is intended 
solely for me, or for my writings. In truth, although 
I say this in a certain confidence, and do not wish the 
observation to go far beyond this banquet chamber, I 
have no high opinion of myself. The true artist can 
never lose sight of the abyss which separates his ideal 
from that which he has realized, the thing he sought 
and strove to do from the actual poem or picture he 
has accomplished, but I am confidently and joyously 
aware that in my comparatively unimportant person, 
gentlemen, you salute to-night with the large-heart- 
edness characteristic of your land, and of the Lotos 
Club in particular, the heart of that other and older 
England which also loves you well, and through me 
to-night warmly and sincerely greets you. 

Moreover, the lowliest ambassador derives a measure 
of dignity from the commission of a mighty sovereign, 
and the conviction that supports me this evening is 



84 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

that in my unworthy self the men of letters of the cis- 
atlantic lands are here joining hands, and that if I 
may in humility speak for my literary countrymen, 
they are also here, and now warmly salute those of your 
race,— not the less warmly because America has lately 
decreed a signal deed of justice toward English authors 
in her copyright act. Some years ago I wrote two 
little verses in a preface of a book dedicated to my 
numerous friends in America, which ran like this: 

Thou new Great Britain, famous, free, and bright, 
West of thy West sleepeth my ancient East ; 

Our sunsets make thy noons, daytime and night 
Meet in sweet morning promise on thy breast. 

Fulfil the promise, lady of wide lands. 

Where with thine own an Enghsh singer ranks ; 

I, who found favor from thy sovereign hands, 
Kiss them, and at thy feet lay this for thanks. 

Your legislature has since rendered my statement 
absolutely true, and has given full citizenship in this 
country to every English author. Personally, I was 
never a fanatic on the matter. I have always had a 
tenderness for those buccaneers of the ocean of books 
who, in nefarious bottoms, carried my poetical goods 
far and wide, without any charge for freight. Laurels, 
in my opinion, for they can be won, are meant to be 
worn with thankfulness and modesty, not to be eaten 
like salad or boiled like cabbage for the pot ; and when 
some of my comrades have said impatiently about their 
more thoughtful works that writers must live, I have, 
perhaps, vexed them by replying that an author who 



SIR EDWIN ARNOLD 85 

aspires to fame and an independent gratitude bestowed 
for the true creative service to mankind should be con- 
tent, I hold, with those lofty and inestimable rewards, 
and not demand bread and butter also from the high 
Muses, as if they were German waitresses in a coffee- 
house. 

Other ways of earning daily bread should be fol- 
lowed. If profit comes, of course it is to men, poets 
and authors, welcome enough, and justice is ever the 
best of all excellent things; but the one priceless re- 
ward for a true poet or sincere thinker lives surely in 
the service his work has done to his generation and in 
the precious friendships which even I have found en- 
rich his existence and embellish his path in life. But 
this excursion on the literary rights now equitably 
established leads me to touch upon the noble commu- 
nity of language which our two countries possess. 

You, too, besides your own ample glories, have a 
large part by kinship and common speech in the work 
which England has done and is doing in Asia by giv- 
ing peace and development to India ; in Africa by fos- 
tering commerce and preserving order; in Egypt by 
opening the dark continent, as well as peopling Aus- 
tralia and many a distant colony with her industrious 
children. Half of all this I consider is America's, as 
she may also claim a large and substantial part in the 
spread of the Anglo-Saxon race through this vast new 
world, under that lovely and honored banner about 
which I must think our old poet was dreaming when he 
sung: 

Her lightness and brightness do shine in such splendor 
That none but the stars are thought fit to attend her. 

6* 



86 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

Beyond all, I say we share together that glorious lan- 
guage of Shakespeare, which it will be our common duty 
and, I think, our manifest destiny to establish as the 
general tongue of the globe. This seems to be inevit- 
able, not without a certain philological regret, since if 
I were to choose an old tongue I think I should prefer, 
for its music and its majesty, the beautiful Castilian. 
Nevertheless, the whole world must eventually talk 
our speech, which is already so prevalent that to cir- 
cumnavigate the globe none other is necessary, and 
even in the by-streets of Japan, the bazaars of India 
and China, and the villages of Malaya one half of the 
shops write up the names and goods in English. Is not 
this alone well-nigh enough to link us in pride and 
peace? The English poet Cowper has nobly written: 

Time was when it was praise and boast enough, 
In every chme, travel where'er we might, 
That we were born her children ; fame enough 
To fiU the mission of a common man. 
That Chatham's language was his native tongue. 

Let us all try to keep in speech and in writing as close 
as we can to the pure English that Shakespeare and 
Milton, and in these later times Longfellow, Emerson, 
and Hawthorne, have fixed. It will not be easy. Con- 
versing recently with Lord Tennyson, and expressing 
similar opinions, he said to me : ' ' It is bad for us that 
English will always be a spoken speech, since that 
means that it will always be changing, and so the time 
will come when you and I will be as hard to read as 
Chaucer is to-day. ' ' 

You remember, gentlemen, the opinion your bril- 



SIR EDWIN ARNOLD 87 

liant humorist Artemus Ward let fall of that ancient 
singer. "Mr. Chaucer," he observed casually, **is an 
admirable poet, but as a spellist a very decided fail- 
ure." To the treasure-house of that noble tongue the 
United States has splendidly contributed. It would 
be far poorer to-day without the tender verses of Long- 
fellow, the serene and philosophic pages of Emerson, 
the convincing wit and clear criticism of my illustrious 
departed friend James Russell LoweU, the Catullus- 
like perfection of the lyrics of Edgar Allan Poe, and 
the glorious, large-tempered dithyrambs of Walt Whit- 
man. 

These stately and sacred laurel groves grow here in 
a garden forever extending, ever carrying further for- 
ward for the sake of humanity the irresistible flag of 
our Saxon supremacy, and lead one to falter in an 
attempt to eulogize America and the idea of her po- 
tency and her promise. The most elaborate panegyric 
would seem but a weak impertinence which would re- 
mind you, perhaps, too vividly of Sidney Smith, who, 
when he saw his grandchild pat the back of a large 
turtle, asked her why she did so. The little maid 
replied, "Grandpapa, I do it to please the turtle." 
"My child," he answered, ''you might as well stroke 
the dome of St. Paul's to please the Dean and Chap- 
ter." I myself once heard, in our zoological gardens 
in London, another little girl ask her mama whether 
it would hurt the elephant if she offered him a choco- 
late drop. In that guarded and respectful spirit it is 
that I venture to tell you here to-night how truly in 
England the peace and prosperity of your Republic are 
desired, and that there is nothing except good will felt 



88 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

by the mass of our people toward you, and nothing but 
the greatest satisfaction in your wealth and progress. 

Between these two majestic sisters of the Saxon blood 
the hatchet of war is, pleaise God, buried. No cause of 
quarrel, I think and hope, can ever be otherwise than 
truly out of proportion to the vaster causes of affection 
and accord. We have no longer to prove to each other or 
to the world that Englishmen and Americans are high- 
spirited and fearless; that Englishmen and Americans 
alike will do justice and will have justice, and will put 
up with nothing else from each other and from the 
nations at large. Our proofs are made on both sides, 
and indelibly written on the pages of history. Not 
that I wish to speak platitudes about war. It has been 
necessary to human progress ; it has bred and preserved 
noble virtues ; it has been inevitable, and may be again, 
but it belongs to a low civilization. Other countries 
have, perhaps, not yet reached that point of intimate 
contact and rational advance, but for us two, at least, 
the time seems to have come when violent decisions, and 
even talk of them, should be as much abolished between 
us as cannibalism. 

When in Washington I ventured to propose to Presi- 
dent Harrison that we should some day, the sooner the 
better, choose five men of public worth in the United 
States and ^ye in England, give them gold coats, if 
you please, and a handsome salary, and establish them 
as a standing and supreme tribunal of arbitration, re- 
ferring to them the little family fallings-out of Amer- 
ica and England whenever something goes wrong be- 
tween us about a sealskin in Bering Strait, a lobster- 
pot, an ambassador's letter, a border tariff, or an Irish 



SIR EDWIN ARNOLD 89 

vote. He showed himself very well disposed toward 
my suggestion. 

Mr. President, in sincerely hoping that you take me 
to be a better poet than orator, I thank you all from 
the bottom of my heart for your reception to-night, 
and personally pray for the tranquillity and prosperity 
of this free and magnificent Republic. Under the cir- 
cumstances, one word may perhaps be permitted before 
a company so intellectual and representative as to my 
purpose in visiting your States. I had the inclination 
to try this literary experiment, whether a poet might 
not with a certain degree of success himself read the 
poem which he had composed and best understands as 
the promulgator of his own ideas. The boldness of 
such an enterprise really covers a sincere compliment 
to America, for that which was possible and even popu- 
lar in ancient Greece could be nowhere again possible 
if not in America, which has many characteristics and 
where the audiences are so patient, generous, and en- 
lightened. We shall see. 

Heartily, gratefully, and with a mind from which 
the memory of this glorious evening will never be ef- 
faced, I thank you for the very friendly and favorable 
omens of this banquet. 



ABEAM S. HEWITT 

AT THE DINNER TO WHITELAW REID, UPON HIS RETIRE- 
MENT FROM OFFICE AS MINISTER TO FRANCE, 
APRIL 30, 1892 

YOUR president said he was reluctant at this ex- 
tremely late hour to protract the proceedings by 
the sound of voices other than those which have al- 
ready been heard. I share with him most profoundly in 
this reluctance, and I thought, and think now, that it 
is one of the privileges of old age to be allowed to rest 
in quiet contemplation, and in the pleasure of hearing 
others talk for its instruction. Sir, I feel the poverty of 
thought, and more particularly of words, which comes 
to those who have fought the battle of life and been 
retired. Still, it is easy to perform the duty which we 
all come here to-night so willingly to discharge, in say- 
ing to Mr. Reid how lonesome we have been in his ab- 
sence, and how the sense of loneliness no amount of 
talk, political or otherwise, has been able to relieve. 

Mr. Reid and I have been friends for many years, 
and although we have had our political differences, they 
have never invaded for one moment the sacred domain 
of friendship. When I have made the great mistakes 
of my public career, I say now that no one came to me 
more frankly or more freely in private and besought 
me to see the error of my ways than Mr. Reid. And 

90 



ABRAM S. HEWITT 91 

I will say now that if I had followed his advice on 
more than one occasion it would have been better for 
me, and perhaps for the country. 

When Mr. Eeid was selected to fill the distinguished 
office which he has just resigned I think no one re- 
joiced more than I did, and no one believed more than 
I did that the administration had put the right man in 
the right place. 

In the early history of our country Jefferson and 
Adams and other of our Presidents thought that for- 
eign ministers were not of much use ; nevertheless, they 
always sent men abroad to fill those offices to get rid 
of troublesome politicians at home. There are many 
examples in our country, the best-known of which is 
John Randolph— who was sent to Russia to die, to the 
great gratification of some of his former friends. But 
there was another reason. When the diplomatic bill 
was attacked on the ground that the salaries were too 
great and that our country ought to discontinue its for- 
eign ministers, I had charge of the bill, and I pointed 
out to the House— and I never heard any objection 
made afterward, although I see it has occurred on one 
occasion quite recently— that it was necessary to educate 
our ministers whom we sent to foreign countries, and I 
must say that the Republican administration, which has 
succeeded the exceedingly able and patriotic Democratic 
administration, has made a great discovery, namely, 
they have selected men who had already been trained 
in a greater school than any foreign community or any 
government under which the ordinary rules of diplo- 
macy exist : they have selected men trained in an edi- 
torial capacity. They have picked out the men who 



92 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

know every trick and every motive which influences 
human action. 

I think that the very acme of human intelligence was 
exhibited by the President when he chose to represent 
us, under very peculiar difficulties in the court of 
France, a man who was born and bred in Ohio, and 
who had been graduated in the city of New York in 
the midst of our local politics. I knew perfectly well 
that whatever he did would be well done, and that all 
he did as Minister to France would redound to the 
credit of his country. 

Now, you are familiar with what Mr. Keid has done, 
and we are also grateful to him for what he has done, 
because he has opened an enormous trade for this 
country in France, and I do not think it necessary 
to speak at any length upon his work there. I find 
that his views have been enlarged in some particulars 
since he left us, and that he is absolutely prepared to 
consider how the reciprocal trade between France and 
the United States might be increased ; and he even sug- 
gested that the proposition made by France, of the 
universal exchange of products between the two na- 
tions, might be, and would be, for the advantage of this 
country rather than that of France. 

Now, for the editor of the '' Tribune" to have ar- 
rived at the conclusion that foreign trade can be ad- 
vantageous to anybody, and that it is not a crime 
that ought to be suppressed, is in my mind evidence of 
the great value that is derived from sending editors 
abroad as the representatives of our expanding nation. 

I found in the address which he made, yesterday or 
the day before, before the Republican State Conven- 



ABRAM S. HEWITT 93 

tion, that he has arrived at some admirable conclusions, 
which he stated to his fellow-delegates. I think they 
really are of practical value, not only to the Republi- 
cans, but to the Democrats. They were the result of 
experience. He advised his party to get together. 

Now, I do not know any man of my acquaintance 
now living— perhaps I may know some who are dead— 
who have got together as many good things as Mr. Reid 
has. Before he went abroad he got a newspaper to- 
gether, and connected with that newspaper he got a 
group of editors and reporters without a superior as a 
corps— perhaps without an equal— in any like estab- 
lishment in the world. He got a fine building, and, 
if I may be permitted in his presence to say it, he got 
a charming wife and a most admirable family and a 
beau-ideal of a father-in-law. 

Now, do you wonder when a man looks at things of 
that sort which he has got together, that he advises 
other people to get together ? 

Now, with his profound knowledge of international 
relations, and with the reputation which he has ac- 
quired, not only in France, but in America, there is 
no telling to what heights he may attain. If it should 
happen that the people of this country should, in a 
spasm of extraordinary intelligence, recognize the enor- 
mous advantage which it would be to them to secure 
in the highest executive office of the land the services 
of so trained a diplomat, so wise a statesman as Mr. 
Reid, there is at least one Democrat in this broad land 
who would not say him nay, and who would feel that 
virtue had received its just reward. 



WILLIAM H. Mcelroy 

AT THE DINNER TO WHITELAW REID, APRIL 30, 1892 

AS a New-Yorker whose bump of local pride is well 
J\. developed, I naturally hail with enthusiasm my 
fellow- citizen who is your guest of honor, since he has 
lent distinction to the metropolis and to our common- 
wealth. In a public place abroad, of great dignity and 
responsibility, he has been demonstrating of late years 
what he had previously demonstrated at home, that 
there is no better way of getting first-class work done 
in a first-class manner than by inducing a newspaper 
man to do it. This assertion is made in spite of my 
having written some pieces for the newspapers my- 
■ self. ''No pleasure is comparable," says Bacon, "with 
the standing upon the vantage-ground of truth." 
Were it not for this, I should hardly venture in this 
company, which contains so many foremost represen- 
tatives of the other professions, to lay stress upon the 
fact that the strong and brilliant diplomatic career 
which just now is inspiring so many eulogies is the 
career of one who is primarily a journalist and only 
incidentally a diplomatist. 

It might not be in good, in truly good, taste further 
to dwell upon this fascinating consideration— fascinat- 
ing to a newspaper man. I shall only ask you to bear in 

94 



WILLIAM H. Mcelroy 95 

mind, if you please, not necessarily for publication, but 
as a ^arantee of your discriminating appreciation, 
that the two most successful ministers to France from 
the United States have both been press men— to wit, 
our esteemed back number, Benjamin Franklin, and 
our esteemed contemporary, Whitelaw Reid. It would 
not be strange in the circumstances if an impression- 
able young journalist, given to magnifying his profes- 
sion, should be led to exclaim, with one eye on Paris 
and the other on the record of our late legislature, 
**Let me make the newspapers of a nation, and I care 
not who concocts its laws ! ' ' 

Something has been said about the grand Exposi- 
tion which is to be held in Chicago next year. It 
makes some of us think of an interesting little in- 
cident, not wholly unconnected with your guest of 
honor, of the earlier Philadelphia Exposition. One 
morning a young fellow from one of the Territories, 
who was doing the Art Department, halted before an 
imposing figure in bronze. He took a fancy to it, and 
was anxious to know whom it represented. Accord- 
ingly, he went to one of the officials, who kindly ex- 
plained, ''That 's Rienzi, the last of the Tribunes." 
Instead of thanking his benefactor, the young fellow 
laughed him to scorn, saying: "No, yer don't! My 
pop 's taken the 'Tribune' ever since she started, and 
I happen to know that the last of the Tribunes ain't 
no Ry-en-zee, but a man named Whitelaw Reid. ' ' 



ABRAM S. HEWITT 

AT THE DINNER TO THE MAYOR OF THE CITY, 
WILLIAM L. STRONG, JANUARY 12, 1895 

I COULD have wished that it had comported with 
your sense of propriety and with the nnbonnded 
courtesy which prevails in this club that I might have 
been left in that retirement to which I was consigned 
six years ago by a large majority. 

I suppose that this club must base its custom upon 
what evidently is so familiar to Colonel Strong— pro- 
pria quce maribus. Certainly it is to me a new sensa- 
tion to hear these extremely courteous remarks from 
the president to the mayor. I was not fortunate 
enough myself to be the recipient of the intended honor 
which the club proposed to me when I became mayor. 
Neither was I acquainted with the cheerfulness of the 
office, nor made the recipient of that delightful custom 
of the club which ''welcomes the coming and speeds 
the parting guest. ' ' But I have experienced the hospi- 
tality of this club on many occasions, and it is the 
only public body in this city that has the power to 
compel me to leave my house at night, or to enjoy 
the delightful society and the charming entertainment 
which you always offer to your guests. One cannot 
fail to sympathize with his Honor in the cheerful view 
which he takes of his present situation. I doubt 

96 



ABRAM S. HEWITT 97 

whether Mark Tapley, at the most interesting period of 
his career, felt quite as well satisfied with his sur- 
roundings as the mayor appears to be with his. But 
in three years there will be plenty of time to change 
his mind ; and as soon as the Power of Removal Bill is 
passed he will be able to turn out all the adherents of 
Tammany Hall, and put in officers who in his opinion 
will be able to discharge the duties of their several posi- 
tions with perhaps more fidelity and more ability than 
those who are now in office. 

From my own experience I doubt whether the results 
will be as satisfactory as possibly he and the rest of 
the community anticipate. Men who are trained in 
politics and who have had a long experience in office 
are apt to be very efficient indeed in the performance 
of their duty, provided they have adequate supervision. 
And although I w^as unable to secure passage of the 
Power of Removal Bill, which I thought ought to have 
been passed for the mayor at that time, and which I 
think ought to be passed now, yet I am bound to say 
that I never experienced the slightest difficulty, while I 
was mayor, in having the heads of departments per- 
form any duty to which I called their attention. Not a 
single incumbent of office was removed during the 
mayor's term. I am perfectly certain that the present 
mayor has only to mark out his policy with intelli- 
gence and to act with firmness in order to have every 
one of his requests promptly attended to. 

The truth is that we are in a transitory condition in 
regard to municipal government. "We don't know how 
to administer the affairs of three millions of people, 
as we shall have when the cities of New York and 



98 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

Brooklyn are united. I wish to say just here that 
some of these gentlemen may suppose that I am an 
advocate of consolidation. Allow me to say that, as we 
do not yet know how to govern New York, I have very 
little hope that we shall lessen our difficulties by en- 
larging the number of our people. But consolidation 
is bound to come, and in the meantime this problem of 
municipal government must be studied. 

There are difficulties which cannot be eradicated 
either by the force of law or by any resolution on the 
part of the mayor that they shall cease to exist. Great 
cities are the characteristic of modern civilization. The 
population of the world, just as the business of the 
world, is drifting into great centers of activity. The 
old principles, or the old practices, so to speak, upon 
which cities have been governed have ceased to retain 
their potency. We have got to enlarge the theory of 
municipal government to the practice in order to meet 
these new demands with which we are not yet familiar. 
Most of the complaints which are made, and most of the 
suffering which we endure, are the result of the growth 
of these great centers of population. They are not 
due, to any great extent, to any particular party or to 
any small number of men. They are rather due to the 
introduction of new elements with which we have not 
yet learned to deal. Let us study the questions in an 
intelligent way. Let us try to develop the civic spirit, 
and when we get a good man in the mayor's chair let 
us try to strengthen him in the performance of his 
duty. 



ROBEET a. INaERSOLL 

AT THE DINNER TO ANTON SEIDL, FEBRUARY 2, 1895 

I WAS enjoying myself with music and song; why 
I should be troubled, why I should be called upon 
to trouble you, is a question I can hardly answer. 
Still, as the president has remarked, the American peo- 
ple like to hear speeches. Why, I don't know. It has 
always been a matter of amazement that anybody 
wanted to hear me. Talking is so universal, with few 
exceptions— the deaf and dumb— everybody seems to 
be in the business. Why they should be so anxious to 
hear a rival I never could understand. But, gentle- 
men, we are all pupils of nature ; we are taught by the 
countless things that touch us on every side, by field | 
and flower and star and cloud and river and sea, where 
the waves break into whitecaps, and by the prairie, 
and by the mountain that lifts its granite forehead to 
the sun,— all things in nature touch us, educate us, 
sharpen us, cause the heart to bud, to burst it may be, 
into blossom to produce fruit. In common with the 
rest of the world, I have been educated a little that 
way— by the things I have seen, and by the things I 
have heard, and by the people I have met. But there 
are a few things that stand out in my recollection as 
having touched me more deeply than others, a few men 
to whom I feel indebted for the little I know, for the 

LofC. 99 



100 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

little I happen to be. Those men, those things, are 
forever present in my mind. But I want to tell you 
to-night that the first man that ever let up a curtain 
in my mind, that ever opened a blind, that ever allowed 
a little sunshine to straggle in, was Robert Burns. I 
went to get my shoes mended, and I had to go with 
them. And I had to wait till they were done. I was 
like the fellow standing by the stream, naked, washing 
his shirt. A lady and gentleman were riding by in a 
carriage, and upon seeing him the man indignantly 
shouted, ''"Why don't you put on another shirt when 
you are washing one?" The fellow said, "I suppose 
you think I 've got a hundred shirts ! ' ' 

When I went into the shop of the old Scotch shoe- 
maker he was reading a book, and when he took my 
shoes in hand I took his book, which was "Robert 
Burns. " In a few days I had a copy ; and indeed, gen- 
tlemen, from that time if Burns had been destroyed 
I could have restored more than half of it. It was in 
my mind day and night. Burns, you know, is a little 
valley, not very wide, but full of sunshine; a little 
stream runs down, making music over the rocks, and 
children play upon the banks; narrow roads overrun 
with vines, covered with blossoms ; happy children, the 
hum of bees, and little birds pour out their hearts and 
enrich the air. That is Burns. 

Then, you must know that I was raised respectably. 
Certain books were not thought to be good for a young 
person ; only such books as would start you in the nar- 
row road for the New Jerusalem. 

One night I stopped at a little hotel in Illinois many 
years ago, when we were not quite civilized, when the 
footsteps of the red man were still in the prairies. 



ROBERT a. INOERSOLL 101 

WMle I was waiting for supper an old man was reading 
from a book, and among others who were listening was 
myself. I was filled with wonder. I had never heard 
anything like it. I was ashamed to ask him what he was 
reading; I supposed that an intelligent boy ought to 
know. So I waited, and when the little bell rang for 
supper I hung back and they went out. I picked up the 
book; it was Sam Johnson's edition of Shakespeare. 
The next day I bought a copy for four dollars. My 
God ! more than the national debt. You talk about the 
present straits of the Treasury. Four days, four 
nights, four months, four years I read those books, two 
volumes, and I commenced with the introduction! I 
have n't read that introduction for nearly fifty years, 
certainly forty-five, but I remember it still. Other writ- 
ers are like a garden diligently planted and watered, 
but Shakespeare is a forest where the oaks and elms 
toss their branches to the storm, where the pine towers, 
where the vine bursts into blossom at its foot. That 
book opened to me a new world, another nature. While 
Burns was the valley, here was a range of mountains 
with thousands of such valleys; while Burns was as 
sweet a star as ever rose into the horizon, here was a 
heaven filled with constellations. That book has been 
a source of perpetual joy to me from that day to this ; 
and whenever I read Shakespeare— if it ever happens 
—and fail to find some new beauty, some new presenta- 
tion of some wonderful truth, or to find another word 
that bursts into blossom, I shall make up my mind that 
my mental faculties are failing, that it is not the fault 
of the book. Those, then, are two things that helped 
to educate me a little. 

Afterward I saw a few paintings by Rembrandt, and 



102 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

all at once I was overwhelmed with the genius of the 
man that could convey so much thought in form and 
color. Then I saw a few landscapes by Corot, and 
I began to think I knew something about art. Dur- 
ing all my life, of course, like other people, I had 
heard what they call music, and I had my favorite 
pieces, most of those favorite pieces being favorites on 
account of association; and nine tenths of the music 
that is beautiful to the world is beautiful because of 
the association— not because the music is good, but be- 
cause of association. We cannot write a very poetic 
thing about a pump or about water- works ; we are not 
old enough. We can write a poetic thing about a well 
and a sweep and an old moss-covered bucket, and you 
can write a poem about a spring, because a spring 
seems a gift of nature, something that costs no trouble 
and no work, something that will sing of nature under 
the quiet stars in June. So it is poetic on account of 
association. The stage-coach is more poetic than the 
car, but the time will come when the cars will be po- 
etic, because human feelings, love 's remembrances, will 
twine around them, and consequently they will become 
beautiful. There is a piece of music, "The Last Rose 
of Summer, ' ' with the music a little weak in the back ; 
then there is ''Home, Sweet Home," and associations 
make all this music beautiful. So in the ' ' Marseillaise ' ' 
is the French Revolution, that whirlwind and flame 
of war, of heroism the highest possible, of generos- 
ity, self-denial, cruelty— all of which the human heart 
and brain are capable; so that that music now sounds 
as though its notes were made of stars, and it is beau- 
tiful mostly by association. 



ROBERT G. INGERSOLL 103 

Now, I always felt that there must be some greater 
music somewhere. You know this little music that 
comes back with recurring emphasis every two inches 
or every three and a half inches ; I thought there ought 
to be music somewhere with a great sweep from hori- 
zon to horizon, and that in the meantime could fill the 
great dome of sound with winged notes like the eagle ; if 
there was not such music, somebody sometime would 
make it, and I was waiting for it. One day I heard it ; 
and I said, What music is that? Who wrote that? 
I felt it everywhere. I was cold. I was almost hyster- 
ical. It answered to my brain, to my heart; not only 
to association, but to all there was of hope and aspira- 
tion, all my future; and they said, this is the music 
of Wagner. I never knew one note from another — of 
course, I would know it from a promissory note— and 
was utterly and absolutely ignorant of music until I 
heard Wagner interpreted by the greatest leader, in 
my judgment, in the world— Anton Seidl. He not 
only understands Wagner in the brain, but he feels him 
in the heart, and there is in his blood the same kind 
of wild and splendid independence that was in the 
brain of Wagner. 

I want to say to-night, because there are so many 
heresies, Mr. President, creeping into this world— I 
want to say, and say it with all my might, that Rob- 
ert Burns was not Scotch. He w£is far wider than 
Scotland ; he had in him the universal tide, and wher- 
ever it touches the shore of a human being it finds ac- 
cess. Not Scotch, gentlemen, but a man— a man ! I can 
swear to it, or rather affirm, that Shakespeare was not 
English,— another man, kindred of all, of all races and 



104 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

peoples, and who understood the universal brain and 
heart of the human race, and who had imagination 
enough to put himself in the place of all. And so I 
want to say to-night, because I want to be consistent, 
Richard "Wagner was not a German, and his music is 
not German. And why? Germany would not have it. 
Germany denied that it was music. The great Ger- 
man critics said it was nothing in the world but 
noise. The best interpreter of Wagner in the world 
is not German, and no man has to be German to un- 
derstand Richard Wagner. In the heart of nearly 
every man is this seolian harp, and when the breath of 
true genius touches it, it answers in music of its own. 
Wagner has touched the harp in every human heart 
that has got a harp ; every one who knows what music 
is or has the depth and height of feeling necessary to 
appreciate it, appreciates Richard Wagner. How to 
understand that music, to hear it as interpreted by this 
great leader, is an education. It develops the brain, 
it gives to the imagination wings ; the little earth grows 
large, the people grow important, and, not only that, it 
civilizes the heart ; and the man who understands that 
music can love better and with greater intensity than 
he ever did before. The man who understands and 
appreciates that music becomes in the highest sense 
spiritual— and I don't mean by spiritual, worshiping 
some phantom, or dwelling upon what is going to hap- 
pen to some of us— I mean spiritual in the highest 
sense, when a perfume arises from the heart in grati- 
tude, and when you feel that you know what there is 
of beauty, of sublimity, of heroism and honor and love 
in the human heart. This is what I mean by being 



ROBERT a. INGERSOLL 105 

spiritual. I don't mean denying yourselves here and 
living on a crust with the expectation of eternal joy- 
that is not what I mean. By spiritual I mean a man 
who has an ideal, a great ideal, and who is splendid 
enough to live up to that ideal ; that is what I mean by 
spiritual. And the man who has heard the music of 
Wagner, that music of love and death, the greatest 
music, in my judgment, that ever issued from the hu- 
man brain,— the man who has heard that and under- 
stands it has been civilized. 

Another man to whom I feel under obligation, whose 
name I do not know— I know Burns, Shakespeare, Rem- 
brandt, and Wagner, but there are some others whose 
names I do not know— there is he, for one, who chis- 
eled the ''Venus de Milo." This man helped to civil- 
ize the world; and there is nothing under the sun as 
pathetic as the perfect. Whoever creates the perfect 
has thought and labored and suffered; and no perfect 
thing has ever been done except through suffering and 
except through the highest and holiest thought, and 
among this class of men is Wagner. Let me tell you 
something more. You know I am a great believer. 
There is no man in the world who believes more in 
human nature than I do. No man believes more in the 
nobility and splendor of humanity than I do ; no man 
feels more grateful than I to the self-denying and 
heroic, splendid souls who have made this world fit for 
men and women to live in. But I believe that the 
human mind has reached its top in three depart- 
ments. I don't believe the human race, no matter if 
it lives millions of years more upon this wheeling 
world, will ever produce anything greater, sublimer 



106 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

than the marbles of the Greeks. I do not believe it. 
I believe they reached absolutely the perfection of form 
and the expression of force and passion in stone. The 
Greeks made marble as sensitive as flesh and as pas- 
sionate as blood. I don 't believe that any human being 
of any coming race, no matter how many suns may rise 
and set, or how many religions may rise and fall, or 
how many languages be born and decay, will ever excel 
the dramas of Shakespeare. Nor do I believe that the 
time will ever come when any man with such instru- 
ments of music as we now have, and having nothing 
but the common air that we now breathe, will ever 
produce greater pictures in sound, greater music than 
Wagner. Never! Never! And I don't believe that 
he will ever have a better interpreter than Anton Seidl. 
Seidl is a poet in sound, a sculptor in sound. He is 
what you might call an orchestral orator, and as such 
he expresses the deepest feelings, the highest aspira- 
tions, and the intensest and truest love of which the 
brain and heart of man are capable. 

Now, I am glad, I am delighted, that the people here 
in this city and in various other cities of our great 
country are becoming civilized enough to appreciate 
these harmonies; I am glad they are civilized at last 
enough to know that the home of music is tone, not 
tune; that the home of music is in harmonies where 
you braid them like rainbows ; I am glad they are great 
enough and civilized enough to appreciate the music 
of "Wagner, the greatest music in this world. Wagner 
sustains the same relation to other composers that 
Shakespeare does to other dramatists, and any other 
dramatist compared with Shakespeare is like one tree 



ROBERT G. INGERSOLL 107 

compared with an immeasurable forest, or rather like 
one leaf compared with a forest ; and all the other com- 
posers of the world are embraced in the music of Wag- 
ner. No man has written anything more tender than 
he, nobody anything sublimer than he. Whether it is 
in the song of the deep, or the warble of the mated bird, 
no man has excelled Wagner; he has expressed all 
that the human heart is capable of appreciating. And 
now, gentlemen, having troubled you long enough, and 
saying, ''Long live Anton Seidl!" I bid you good 
night. 



WILLIAM HENEY WHITE 

AT THE DINNER TO ANTON SEIDL, FEBRUARY 2, 1895 

I WAS touched, as we all were, by the eloquence of 
Colonel IngersoU in his beautiful tribute to our guest 
and to the sweet art of music. His assertion that real 
music— I mean the music that touches our better selves 
—is dear to us— rather through associations than from 
culture of ear or mind— appealed to my own thought. 
The song our mother sang to us in our childhood is 
ever sweetest in our ear, and is as dear as is the mem- 
ory of the sweet singer herself. For all time it ranks 
highest in the secure keeping among our heart's best 
treasures. The great Wagner never wrote, and our 
guest, Herr Seidl, will never interpret, a melody that 
will equal the song that mother sang to us in the far 
away, never-forgotten days of childhood. The truth 
has gone on through all time that men are moved not 
so much by great music as they are by the music of 
home, with all its clustering and tender associations. 
And Robert Burns, whom Colonel IngersoU has so 
justly held up to us as the tuneful poet of the people, 
sang ever of home and home loves: of the hopes and 
aspirations of the common people. There was nothing 
in Burns that so endears him to our memory to-day as 
the sweet soul that made him a man like ourselves, one 
who enriched with a kindly, tender thought the plain 

108 



William Henry White 



)Sh\^ ^'^vJt^iH. AVVDiiSi'M 



WILLIAM HENRY WHITE 109 

doings of every-day common life ; who, digging deeper 
in our souls, drew forth the latent beauty of our real 
and purer selves. The golden thread which runs 
through us all is the tender touch of a humanity that 
is ever blessed and brightened by the influence of a 
mother's sacred love. It is the one chord to which 
every human heart responds; it is the inspiration 
through which the great poet, artist, or leader of 
human thought reaches the highest pinnacle of an ac- 
complished fame. Somewhere in every human en- 
deavor, in every worthy achievement can be traced the 
sweet story of a mother's love and sacrifice and her 
child's appreciation; so that no song is so perfect as 
that one made in her honor or under the inspiring 
thought of her love. 

Let me go back in one brief step over the interven- 
ing years, and tell the story of the recruiting of one 
of the first military companies that left Philadelphia 
at the opening of the Civil War to illustrate the influ- 
ence of a song of sentiment upon our minds. When 
President Lincoln called upon the country for the 
seventy-five thousand men with whom he opened that 
long and bitter struggle, fifty men of a then existing 
military company reported at their armory after a 
public call for recruits. They found the room crowded 
with men eager to enlist with them. No great states- 
man addressed these men; no hero of a past war told 
the story of a soldier's sacrifices or pictured his glory. 
But a comrade mounted a chair and sang in a rich and 
manly voice '^ Annie Laurie," then a song full of mem- 
ories of the Crimean war, and then gave the nation's 
hymn, ' ' The Star-Spangled Banner. ' ' With that voice 



no SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

ringing in their ears, and with hearts attuned to the 
nation's call for help, one hundred and fifty names 
were added to the muster roll from which the company 
was selected which finally reached "Washington among 
the earliest of its defenders. 

Permit me to say to our guest that this club is the 
home of all the arts. Here we respect the man of high 
public office— the men representing the several pro- 
fessions — the writer and the worker along the several 
literary lines. Our walls indicate the tastes of the 
club in the pictorial art, which so happily brings 
within our doors the charms of the wild woodland and 
peaceful landscape to rest and delight us by the memo- 
ries they recall. But there is an art beyond all other 
arts, whose kindly representative we honor ourselves in 
meeting to-night— music— which tells the whole story 
of human life and aspiration. When men try to draw 
the picture of a heaven to which they point their fellow- 
men and paint it in its most beautiful and attractive 
form, they do not say that its walls are covered with 
rare paintings, nor draped with marvelous tapestries 
of the sunset clouds, nor that men there recite beau- 
tiful poems of love and adoration. But rather do 
they tell us that in that blessed abode of rest the harp, 
in celestial hands, shall make the angelic music that 
shall fill our hearts with sublime ecstasy and adoring 
thoughts for the all-wise, divine Creator. 



ALMON GOODWIN 

AT THE DINNER TO ANTON SEIDL, FEBRUARY 2, 1895 

YOUE president came to me in his unofficial ca- 
pacity a short time since and told me that I was 
a pilgrim and stranger here. I was not aware that pil- 
grims and strangers were in the habit of making 
speeches; in fact, I was under the impression that the 
Lotos was the home of artists and what an American 

senator once called ''them d d literary feUers," and 

I did n't suppose there was any place among them for 
a poor lawyer like myself. I am sorry that I have n't 
any reminiscences to give to you such as have touched 
your hearts in the eloquent words of Colonel IngersoU. 

I was born up in that far-away State of Maine. I re- 
member the Mexican War, and from my little town one 
of the young men went forth to the war and served a 
year or two. When he came back all the people 
wanted to know and hear about General Taylor, Gen- 
eral Worth, and all those great men about whom peo- 
ple were talking. He gazed upon them thoughtfully 
for a few moments, and then said, ' ' They are all folks. ' ' 
And in looking around upon this club to-night I con- 
cluded that notwithstanding the fact that there are so 
many distinguished gentlemen here present, you are 
all folks, and that I may feel at ease. 

While I have been sitting here I have been thinking 
111 



112 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

about the indestructibility of an idea. All things else 
pass away : seasons, and suns and moons, for all I know, 
and certainly all things mundane, yet an idea seems 
indestructible. Some one lately wrote a learned book, 
to show that the lotos motif underlies all ancient art 
and civilization. He maintains that the lotos was the 
sacred flower of the Egyptians. They attached a pe- 
culiar importance to it, so that everything in their art, 
in their religious ceremonial, and in all the outward 
forms of their civilization seemed in some way to spring 
from the lotos. This motif passed over to Greece, and 
the art of Athens was but the blossoming and unfold- 
ing of this wonderful flower under new skies, and this 
lotos idea was not lost until the end of *Hhe glory that 
was Greece.'' 

But, gentlemen, it was not lost ; it only disappeared, 
like the fountain Arethusa, to pursue its course be- 
neath the ocean until it burst forth in new splendor 
here in the Lotos Club. You welcomed the old idea 
and gave it a wider expansion. You hold that all the 
great things of the world are near akin, that you can- 
not really develop man unless you develop art, and 
that if art is the embodiment of the lotos motif, the 
lotos should stand for all that is beautiful and best in 
the new world. So you have allowed nothing great to 
be achieved in literature or in art without the appre- 
ciation and approval of the Lotos Club. To-night you 
are showing your appreciation of great achievement in 
music by this dinner to Anton Seidl. 

Gentlemen, you have sought in every direction to 
establish the lotos idea, and to make every one feel that 
success in this world lacks something unless it has your 



ALMON GOODWIN 113 

approval. And indeed it does. Mr. Seidl may now 
rest secure, for upon his career you have set the seal 
of that approval. You have not confined your efforts 
to the realm of art, which is certainly one of the most 
important parts of human civilization, of development, 
of culture. You have taken in everything. And now 
no system of policy in state or nation can properly be 
inaugurated— certainly no department of government 
in the city of New York can enter upon the success- 
ful management of its affairs— without your assistance 
and approval. It all comes back to what I said in the 
beginning. This club is only the illustration of the in- 
destructibility of an idea. Recalling these things, I 
drink to the lotos, the queen of flowers, and to the 
Lotos Club, the king of clubs! 



FEANK R. LAWRENCE 

(PRESIDENT OF THE CLUB) 
UPON ITS TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY, MARCH 30, 1895 

TO-NIGHT we celebrate ourselves. To-night, for 
once, we take note of time; we commemorate the 
survival for a quarter of a century of an organi- 
zation which at its beginning seemed held together 
only in the most careless companionship, but which 
has proved to be cemented by bonds as strong as 
steel. 

This club bears a slight resemblance to a celebrated 
church, knowing "neither politics nor religion." If 
asked as to our principles, truth would compel us to 
reply as Artemus Ward is said to have replied to a 
similar question, "I hain't got no principles. I 'm in 
the show business. ' ' Yet, while our principles may be 
a little shadowy and indefinite, the club has purposes 
which are not unworthy. Its home is no mere place 
for the indulgence of creature comfort; it does not 
exist merely for eating and drinking. When that shall 
come to pass, this spot will have lost all its charm. 
From the beginning its aim has been, so far as it might, 
to promote the interests of literature, the drama, music, 
journalism, and art. We have tried to be the first, or 
at least among the first, to extend the hand of fellow- 

114 



FRANK R. LAWRENCE 115 

ship to the visiting man of letters, of science, or of 
art; to recognize genius, however it has found ex- 
pression; to welcome its possessor with a hearty wel- 
come, and to speed him on his way with such 
homage or encouragement as was in our power to 
bestow. 

We believe that this purpose has been worthy and 
useful. Your devotion to pictorial art is shown to- 
night upon these walls, and it seems appropriate 
to tell you that our annual Lotos Club fund for 
the encouragement of American art has now for 
the first time been devoted to the purchase of paint- 
ings by American artists— pictures painted in this 
country— which in a short time we shall add to our 
gallery. 

To-night the mind goes back to many former even- 
ings. The memory is filled with thoughts of happy 
hours with which the history of the club is radiant. 
If we might call back the past, and re-create former 
days, we would summon here again the gentle form of 
Charles Kingsley, the sweet spirit of Oliver Wendell 
Holmes, the mighty shade of General Grant, the souls 
of many great and noble men, each in his turn our 
comrade for a night, and cherished in our recollec- 
tion ever after. 

Here, at the feet of genius and in the shadow of 
greatness, we workaday fellows have often sat, and as 
we have listened to the voice of eloquence or of music 
have felt ourselves refreshed and lifted up and brought 
within clear view of distant mountain tops of thought 
at ordinary times beyond our vision. 

Thinking of such golden hours, there come to the 



116 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

mind the words of Francis Beaumont, in his ode to 
Ben Jonson : 

What things have we seen 
Done at the Mermaid ; heard words that have been 
So nimble and so full of subtle flame 
As if that every one from whence they came 
Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest. 

But Beaumont spoke of a group of intellectual 
giants, and by no stretch of the imagination can we 
compare our merrymakings to their Olympian feasts. 

Yet, recalling how Oliver Wendell Holmes came in 
one night and told us of the Saturday-night meetings 
of Longfellow, Hawthorne, Emerson, Lowell, and Whit- 
tier, it does seem that if the old revelers at the Mermaid 
tavern have ever found successors, it may have been in 
those, the brightest cluster of names in American lit- 
erature. 

We remember at this time with sadness the gaps 
which time has made among our own members. The 
list of those '^who were, but are not" is long and grow- 
ing longer. There were Brougham, and Wilkie Col- 
lins, and George Fawcett Rowe, and Patrick Gilmore, 
and William Florence, and many another whom you 
remember well— men who were true and talented and 
kindly, and who at this above other times we hold in 
most affectionate remembrance. 

When we met to celebrate the twentieth anniversary 
of this club your president expressed the wish that the 
twenty-fifth anniversary might be celebrated in a home 
of our own. The wish of five years ago is now happily 
realized, partly through the persistence of a landlord 



FRANK R. LAWRENCE 117 

who insisted upon pulling the old home down about 
our ears, whether we would or no, and partly because 
we decided to have a landlord no more. But I beg 
you to remember that the realization of our desire has 
been attended with some responsibilities ; and, while it 
is not intended to ask your attention to practical sub- 
jects now, I may remind you that we have lately ex- 
tended the limit of membership in the club, and may 
ask that with your cooperation and aid that limit may 
be filled and completed by the accession of congenial 
friends during the coming year, so that we may more 
largely and adequately carry out the purposes for 
which the club exists. 

It is not my purpose to launch into a serious speech. 
The Lotos Club is twenty-five years of age ; but let no 
man say that it has reached years of discretion. Perish 
the thought! Let us go on in our Bohemian way, as 
unconventional men, eating dinners and singing songs, 
quaffing proper libations, and letting no occasion pass 
us by to ' ' vex with mirth the drowsy ear of night. ' ' 

Often, when jaded with the cares of the day, this 
place seems as a beautiful oasis in the Sahara of life— 
a spot where to a tired imagination and a thirsting 
spirit there appear waving palms and running vines, 
green lawns and rippling waters, though just without 
all the world may be desolate. 

Here come we for good companionship; and as the 
years go by and the shadows lengthen may the mellow- 
ing influences which here abide make us less critical 
and more tolerant, more ready to help one another upon 
the journey where the milestones ever grow closer to- 
gether. 



118 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

Let us hope that the Lotos Club, which has now en- 
dured for a quarter of a century, may continue for 
another, and yet another, and for many years beyond ; 
that the ways may be followed in the club which ex- 
perience has shown to be wise and good, and that at 
all future times all future members may find this place 
what we have found it— the home of real good-fellow- 
ship, without formality. 

Gentlemen, I ask you all to rise and join with me 
in drinking to the prosperity, the long life, and the 
usefulness of the Lotos Club. Owing to the capacity 
of some of our guests, it is exceedingly doubtful whether 
the loving-cup can be made to go around ; nevertheless, 
we will try. 



JOSEPH C. HENDRIX 

AT THE TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY DINNER, 
MARCH 30, 1895 

AS an envoy extraordinary from the oldest club of 
XjL the city of Brooklyn I have come to the court of 
the Lotos to-night to lay my palm branch at the feet 
of the Mogul who presides over its deliberations; and 
in order to introduce some evidence as a guarantee of 
good faith— if not necessarily for publication— I desire 
to inform you that Brooklyn is a city contiguous to 
New York, that we have 990,000 population over there, 
and that we are all very hard at work trying to make 
it a million. 

It is a great gratification to come to a club that 
knows how to make of club life a perfect success. An 
Irishman said to his wife when he was married to her, 
*'If you have children, one at a time, you can name 
thim, but if they come irregularly I propose to have the 
privilege of naming thim." The first was a pair of 
girl twins. ''Very good," said the Irishman, "Oi'U 
kape me word; Oi'U name thim. Oi'U call thim after 
their mother; one shall be called Kate, and the other 
Dupli-Kate." The second time his wife presented 
her husband with a pair of boys. ''Very good," said 
Pat, ''Oi named the first after their mother, and I 
shall name the second after their father, and, as he is 

X19 



120 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

a member of Tammany Hall, Oi shall call the one Peter 
and the other Re-Peter." A short time after she pre- 
sented him with another pair of boys. A serious hue 
came over his face as he contemplated the situation, 
and he said: "I desire to inform you now, me wife, 
that I shall once more kape me obligation; I shall call 
this one Max and the other one Cli-Max, and inform 
you that this bounteousness must stop." 

The effect of the Lotos Club is to inspire us to be 
frank. You create a spirit of envy in the adminis- 
tration of every other club. How is it possible for 
you to do that? How do you conceive these bril- 
liant ideas? How is it that you happen to have an- 
niversaries so often? I have the great pleasure of 
encountering Lotos Club members under varied and 
appropriate circumstances. The vice-president of this 
club I discovered not long ago inspecting certain new 
gas-works across the city. He was evidently prepar- 
ing, sir, to succeed you some time later on. I never 
look upon the countenance of that gentleman but that 
I am reminded of the incident of the man who went to 
Sioux City, Iowa, from Chicago. He had organized a 
gas company, he had organized a water company, he 
had organized a trolley company, and he had the de- 
posits of the various companies placed in his bank, and 
the bank failed. A committee of indignant citizens 
called upon him and informed him that there was a 
suspicion that somewhere or other about his person he 
had concealed the money that had been deposited by 
the corporations. They said, ''You have a fine ofi&ce, 
an elegant home, and lots of fine furniture." "Yes," 
said he, ' ' but it is all my wife 's. ' ' He continued, ' ' In 



JOSEPH C. HENDRIX 121 

fact, gentlemen, I have nothing in the world but this 
poor body with which I came into the world. If I could 
make you happy I would cut that up and divide it 
among you." One deaf old gentleman in the party 
said : ' ' What does the gentleman say ? " ' ' He says that 
if he could make us happy he would divide his body 
among us." "Very well," said the deaf old fellow, 
' ' put me down for his gall. ' ' 

Mr. President, brevity to-night, sir, in this presence 
is the ''soul of wit." The city of Brooklyn is that 
city which is described in one of the sub-mottoes of 
the Lotos, wherein a certain country is referred to 
where it is always afternoon. The only difference is 
that over there it is always Sunday afternoon. You 
have heard of the famous Brooklyn Handicap. I assure 
you that there is the thing that is ideal and there is the 
thing that is real. The charm of Brooklyn is the home 
and the baby-carriage; and while we attend to our 
domestic duties and our functions as citizens, you 
here in New York, as plutocrats and gold-bugs and 
Wall-street sharks, disport yourselves and hold twenty- 
fifth anniversaries. We salute you and endure you as 
neighbors; and when we come to consolidate with you 
we shall show you what it is to have Brooklyn politics 
vying for the control of the Great Metropolis. 



SIE HENEY lEVINa 

AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, NOVEMBER 16, 1895 

I REMEMBER wlien I first set foot upon American 
soil, the soil of this your loved country, which has 
added a new interest to my life,— I remember the Lotos 
Club was the first— the members of the club were the 
first — to bid me welcome and to extend to me that 
strong hand, that strong grip of friendship and good- 
fellowship which has never, never relaxed. 

In those days I remember your other home was where 
we call down-town. That was also a very comfortable 
and a very happy home. I remember its honored presi- 
dent on that occasion was a very valued and esteemed 
friend of mine, Whitelaw Reid. Its vice-president was 
also my very stanch and dear friend Horace Porter. 

I remember well on that occasion, in your old home, 
how your president, in extending to me the cordial 
greeting of your club with the graceful humor of which 
he is so excellent a master— I remember well how he 
playfully warned me that I was not to mistake the en- 
thusiasm of the members of the Lotos Club upon that 
occasion for the enthusiasm of the audience that I was 
to encounter at the theater on almost the following 
night, bestowing upon me a very friendly benediction 
when he said: ^*What the result, Mr. Irving, may be 
when we read the papers upon Tuesday morning fol- 
lowing, alas ! the mind of man knoweth not. ' ' 

X22 



SIR HENRY IRVING 123 

Well, gentlemen, the scale turned, I rejoice to say, 
in my favor, and the generous and friendly approba- 
tion of the New York public made it kick the beam. 
The same kindly pressure has ever kept it, with all my 
shortcomings, in that most enviable position. 

When I think, gentlemen, of the kindness that has 
been showered upon me through the length and breadth 
of this great nation, of the sympathetic attention and 
the generous toleration always and everywhere ex- 
tended to me, I should be a dullard and a less grateful 
man than I am if I did not look back with ever re- 
newed delight on the first happy day when I sighted 
your shores and felt in my heart the warm glow of the 
fervent and cordial welcome which I have received 
from you. 

To the kind things, Mr. President Lawrence, which 
you have said, I shall make no attempt to respond; 
nor to you, gentlemen of the Lotos Club, for the man- 
ner in which you have received the most gracious and 
kindly words which have fallen from your president. 
It is to me a source of the greatest encouragement to 
receive such favor as you have shown me, which must 
ever be to me a stimulus to better and to worthier 
endeavor. 

I count myself in nothing so happy as in a soul 
which remembers good friends; and it is my dearest 
hope that I may ever retain the esteem— I may say the 
friendship, and I would, if I respectfully might, the 
affection— which has found expression in a form that 
not only confers distinction upon myself as an actor, 
but upon the profession to which I have the honor to 
belong, and the art which you love so weU. 



WILLIAM HENRY WHITE 

AT THE DINNER TO SIR HENRY IRVING, NOVEMBER 16, 1895 

WHAT can be said in addition to our president's 
gracious and glowing welcome to the guest of 
the evening passes my understanding. There is noth- 
ing left for me to say to Sir Henry Irving that will 
welcome him more heartily to our house and endear 
him more to our hearts than the simple welcome I 
quote: ''Sir, you are very welcome to our house, but 
it must appear in other form than words." It was 
fitly chosen that in the Lotos Club the guest of to- 
night found the epitome of his first American audi- 
ence, for the Lotos Club could give an audience such 
as no other place could then furnish to him. Here 
gathered about our board are men representative of 
all professions and of the business life of a great city ; 
here the arts sit together in harmony. 

We leave at the threshold of the club the cares that 
annoy and fret us during the day, and find within its 
home an atmosphere rich in friendship, ripe in com- 
radeship. Therefore, where else could a man who has 
done so much to illustrate and advance the art which 
he so worthily adorns find a more fitting audience? 
Here we are but boys, after all; and here, too, where 
the sister arts teach us what is sweet, charming, and 

124 



WILLIAM HENRY WHITE 125 

gracious in life, we still are as children who are 
pleased and delighted by the pageantry and pictures 
of the drama. AVho is a more gracious painter of the 
stage picturings of human wisdom, loves, and follies 
than our guest? With him may we not retrace again, 
in memory, that pathway, fiower-bordered, on which 
we walked hand in hand with the girl who enriched 
our youth with the golden promise of her love. Later 
we see, in his work, that girl ripened into the steadfast 
charms of wifehood, making our coarser aims purer, 
and filling us with higher ideals and nobler ambitions 
in the race of life. Who has more ably drawn the 
riper hours of life, the best efforts of our manhood, 
the stronger work which should mark our maturer 
years, than our guest, when he draws for our admiring 
appreciation his ideal of a graceful, vigorous age— 
age that, manfully meeting 'Hhe slings and arrows of 
outrageous fortune, ' ' bears its part in human interests 
up to the falling of that final curtain which shuts out 
''this last of earth"? 

We are indeed grateful for, and indebted to, such a 
master of the dramatic art who can lead us unerringly 
through successive stages of common daily experiences 
only to adorn each phase of life, touching them only 
to better and to deepen their impression upon our 
grateful memory. France, Germany, and Italy have 
sent to us their highest exponents of the lyric and 
dramatic arts, and so have taught a younger and a 
cruder nation all that is best and improving to us in 
their several schools. America willingly learned much 
sitting at the feet of such masters, who left distinct 
impress of their visits in our advanced ideals and ap- 



126 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

preciation of the true principles of art. Acknowledg- 
ing the great art value to us of the visits of these other 
teachers, I feel that we cannot more fitly convey the 
club's sentiments to our distinguished guest, England's 
greatest living exponent of the dramatic art, than to 
apply to him and in his honor the lines written by 
Dryden long ago to mark the unapproachable emi- 
nence of England's great poet, John Milton: 

Three poets, in three distant ages born, 
Greece, Italy, and England did adorn. 
The first in loftiness of thought surpass'd ; 
The next, in majesty j in both the last. 
The force of Nature could no further go -, 
To make a third, she joined the former two. 



PARKE GODWm 

AT THE DINNER TO JEAN AND EDOUARD DE RESZKE, 
DECEMBER 21, 1895 

YOUR president has called upon me almost without 
notice, but this is a service in which I am always 
ready to engage. You know that men who have reached 
my years live in their reminiscences, and mine go back, 
in respect to the opera and to music, almost to their 
earliest days in the city of New York. 

I cannot quite go back to the days of that peerless 
and unfortunate creature Malibran, but I have in my 
house now toys and relics given by her to my late wife, 
who was a child when Malibran first appeared in New 
York, and that was as far back as 1826. All the other 
great vocalists that have been here I think I have heard. 
I remember the first opera company down in Palma's 
Opera House in Chambers Street. I was an intimate 
friend of that dear and generous creature Jenny Lind. 
Christine Nilsson has been a guest at my house, and is 
up to this day one of my cherished friends. In fact, I 
think I have heard all the great vocalists who have 
appeared at the Academy of Music or the Metropolitan 
Opera House. 

I have seen the growth of music in this city. I re- 
member that the companies that came here originally 
simply stopped here on their way through to Havana 

127 



128 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

or New Orleans, for New York was not attractive to 
them in those days. I remember well— and I hope 
that the name I am going to mention will never be for- 
gotten in our musical lives— when Theodore Thomas 
began his concerts and introduced for the first time 
classical music to the taste of the New York public. I 
refer to these events of the past to show the immense 
progress that has been made within one single lifetime 
in our appreciation and knowledge of music. And I 
venture to say that we have here in New York at the 
present time the best opera company that there is now 
on the face of the globe. Not even in Paris, Vienna, 
Berlin, or London is there such an opera company as 
we possess. 

I refer briefly to the past for another reason, and 
that is because it gives me an opportunity to say with 
some emphasis — yes, with some authority— that we have 
with us now in the gentleman at my left (Jean de 
Reszke) the greatest artist in his way, not only that has 
ever appeared on our stage, but I believe upon any 
stage in the world. His greatness consists in the uni- 
formity of his excellence. There may be tenors some- 
where who can strike a note higher or a note lower; 
there may be tenors who can put into a few passages 
a more furious passion, but as to all the qualities that 
constitute the great musical artist, M. Jean de Reszke 
has them in more perfect harmony than any man whom 
I have ever heard, or of whom I have read. 

I know of what I speak, for I have sat for three sea- 
sons, I believe every night, and heard that delicious 
voice and remarked that beautiful action— and M. de 
Reszke commands in both. He is a great actor and a 



PARKE GODWIN 129 

vocalist at once. You never feel any deficiency in his 
performances, and you are never offended by any ex- 
cess. The artistic quality is so perfect and so uniform 
that you hardly know how perfect it is until you have 
begun to reflect on it. 

As for his brother Edouard, also your guest to- 
night, I always feel as I sit there in my seat that if 
Edouard once makes his appearance upon the stage 
the opera is saved for that night. He gives you such 
complete satisfaction that you know all the rest of the 
evening is secure. I venture to say, and I believe, 
that if the orchestra should give up and the chorus 
should desert, M. Edouard de Reszke alone on the stage 
would carry through the performance. 

I will not detain you longer. I am very happy to 
be here on this occasion, and I join with this charming 
and distinguished club heartily in its tribute of re- 
spect to two of the greatest artists in their line now 
existing. Those of you who live to old age, who sur- 
vive me, will tell it, I think, to your children, as I do 
sometimes to mine, when I say proudly that I have 
known some of the greatest musical artists that ever 
lived: *'In our days we heard Jean and Edouard de 
Reszke.'' That will be enough. 



CHARLES A. DANA 

AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, JANUARY 16, 1896 

THE heart that would not be deeply affected by 
such a welcome as this must be indeed of harder 
material than any with which I am acquainted. I con- 
sider this a most unusual, and I may, even without 
excessive modesty, say, an undeserved compliment. 
But in one respect I feel that it is not entirely out of 
place. I do not take it to myself as an individual so 
much as I receive it as an evidence of the most con- 
clusive nature that the real American spirit lives in 
this club, and that among its members, of whatever 
profession they may be and to whatever party they may 
be temporarily or permanently attached, there is one 
predominant, supreme, and unfading idea, and that is 
the idea that is embodied in the Stars and Stripes! 
It is the idea of maintaining here in America a home 
for freedom regulated by law, a home where liberty 
shall be native and to the manner born, a home where 
liberty shall be defended as long as a man remains or 
a drop of blood flows in the veins of an American. 

This is the great end of the labors, efforts, suffer- 
ings, and struggles of humanity during thousands of 
years— that a free government shall be established; 
that the rights of humanity shall be respected; that 
every citizen shall have a fair and equal chance; that 

130 



CHARLES A. DANA 131 

property, education, religion, law shall be maintained; 
that there shall be none superior to another, but every 
man shall worship God according to his own heart and 
his own conscience, in peace, undisturbed, and pro- 
tected by the asgis of a mighty nation that knows no 
rival and fears no foe. 

Gentlemen, we seem to stand at a most interesting 
crisis in the history of mankind ; for whatever concerns 
the American nation, concerns mankind more than it 
does the individual American. Here is the host of 
humanity, here the great struggle is to be worked out 
into higher and higher forms of civilization ; and if we 
fail, where is the man who hopes for a better future 
in which to find consolation? No, we must maintain 
the contest ; we must defy all antagonists, if necessary, 
and stand together. The sum and substance of it all 
is that we must stand by the Star Spangled Banner 
until after sundown. 

The Lotos Club happens to contain among its mem- 
bers a good many journalists, and we are in the habit 
of declaring and of believing that the profession of 
the press is one of the most useful that can be found 
in a civilized community. And I am glad, unspeak- 
ably glad, to find that here in the Lotos Club the 
higher ideal of journalism is esteemed and understood; 
and I trust that so it will be forever, and that what- 
ever men who are not altogether worthy and not alto- 
gether fortunate may do to bring disgrace upon the 
profession, that here the standard will always be ele- 
vated, and the motto of truth, rather than show, will 
be maintained to the last. 



HOEACE POETER 

AT THE DINNER TO CHARLES A. DANA, JANUARY 16, 1896 

THE audience to-night is certainly above par, even 
if an occasional speaker may not reach high- 
water mark. It 's a great thing to have the audience 
all right. A young man came to me not many months 
ago and said in a modest way that he was going to train 
himself to be an orator. He asked if he could get 
any points. He inquired of me what were the pre- 
requisites. I said : ' ' I can tell you. The first requisite 
is to get somebody to listen to you. ' ' 

It has long been patent to us all that every illustrious 
man in this country, all the great of earth, find it neces- 
sary to the full rounding of their careers to be dined 
by the Lotos Club. No great public man has ever been 
safe from having his life end in failure and regret 
without joining us at these banquets. Why, even the 
brilliant and distinguished journalist whom we come 
here to honor to-night, without placing his legs under 
these tables would find even his well-earned fame going 
down in the mildewed gloom of an eternal night. 

My intimate acquaintance with Mr. Dana began 
many years ago; it was when this nation was shaken 
to its nervous center by a gigantic civil war. It was 
in the heroic age of the Republic, when he came out to 
the Army of the Cumberland in the Chickamauga cam- 

132 



HORACE PORTER 133 

paign, sent there, as Assistant Secretary of "War, to re- 
port, as he had reported at Vicksburg and in other cam- 
paigns, the daily scenes that were occurring in those 
stirring times. It was a happy thought of the authori- 
ties in Washington to have those scenes reported to 
them promptly as they occurred, and it was a still hap- 
pier thought to select one to perform that important 
task who had the accomplishments, the courage, and 
the marvelous command of the English language of 
Charles A. Dana. 

We were making history very rapidly in those days, 
and he was promptly recording it. I can remember 
him, as if it were yesterday, mounted on a spirited 
horse, his corduroy trousers tucked into his boots, a 
slouch hat on his head, with the limbs of an athlete, 
looking as if he were ready for any duty which he 
might be called upon to do, whether it was pitching 
pennies or manslaughter in the first degree. 

So we went down to the appalling battle of Chicka- 
mauga. There he shared all the hardships of the sol- 
dier, and equaled him in his courage. I say ''the 
appalling battle," for it is not generally known that 
at Chickamauga the losses suffered were greater than 
in any battle of the Civil War. They talk of deci- 
mating troops. It seemed as nothing then. At Chick- 
amauga many of the regiments lost sixty per cent., and 
the average loss of the whole army in that fight was over 
twenty-five per cent. And so we went through that con- 
test, and as iron is welded in the heat of the fire, so our 
personal friendships are often best welded in the heat 
of battle. Then, coming back from that, we went through 
the old Dry Valley together. [Turning to Mr. Dana : 



134 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

* * Do you remember the old Dry Valley ? ' '] [Mr. Dana : 
** Indeed I do."] Down there every stream the size of 
a slate-pencil was called a river, and when we encamped 
we had to draw all the water we wanted, for fear a stray 
cow would come along and drink the river dry. Occa- 
sionally we got hold of a chicken. You know you can 
always tell the age of a chicken by the teeth— not the 
teeth of the chicken, but your own teeth— and some of 
those chickens were so tough that they created the sus- 
picion in our minds that they had been hatched from 
boiled eggs. Then we were besieged together in Chatta- 
nooga, where we were fed off the crumbs, and where 
we had to throw a tent over a man, he was so thin, in 
order that he might cast a good-sized shadow. And 
then again we met in the great campaign of the Wil- 
derness ; and there, through all those scenes, there was 
a record made hourly and daily to the department; And 
I venture to say that in all the annals of history, as 
we look over those letters and telegrams, there is no 
such correspondence in terseness, perspicuity, force, 
and absolute accuracy as that of your distinguished 
guest, who is celebrated in peace, as he has been in war, 
until he has now reached the very proud distinction 
of being called the dean of American journalism, the 
Nestor of the American press. 

I have n't sufficient acquaintance with journalism to 
speak to you entertainingly on that subject. My ex- 
perience was gained from the conduct of a paper in 
Washington, which was the administration's organ. 
This paper was conducted on what I believe were fair 
business principles. The proprietor employed an edi- 
tor to write all the slanderous articles, and he stood 



HORACE PORTER 135 

the libel suits. Nothing could be fairer than that. 
But it went through fierce throes. One time it suf- 
fered like that paper in Nevada which Joe Jefferson 
says was suspended and then started again. A notice 
explaining the situation read: "This paper was sus- 
pended for want of funds. It is now republished for 
the same reason. ' ' 

Now, the proprietor of this organ had a law-suit on 
hand one day, and I said to him : " I see you have been 
sued for libel again." He said: ''Yes; it 's by that 
old preacher down there in Alexandria. There was 
nothing in the article for him to kick about. There 
was only a little elaboration of the headlines. I think 
the headlines simply read, 'A Wolf in Sheep's Cloth- 
ing—A "Whited Sepulcher, ' or something like that, and 
the old fool got mad and sued for libel." 

We all criticize the newspaper, but we all take it. 
We could not digest our breakfast in the morning with- 
out it. We should not know what to do in our busi- 
ness until we had that morning been instructed by it. 
"Who can measure the power of printer's ink?" said 
Lord Rosslyn. We should guard the power of the press 
as the dragon guarded the Hesperian fruit. Retain its 
freedom, and we are safe; but if that be endangered, 
our liberties will be in constant peril. 

I am very glad to come here to-night to wish long 
life, health, and prosperity to our honored guest; and 
I hope that Mr. Dana will always be able to say what 
Oliver Wendell Holmes used to say when asked whether 
he was over seventy years old : " No ; I am over seventy 
years young." 



CHAELES A. DANA 

IN REPLY TO HORACE PORTER, JANUARY 16, 1896 

GENERAL PORTER'S vivid description of that 
dreadful battle of CMckamauga has brought back 
to my memory a scene that I had not recollected. I 
was on the right of General Rosecrans, the command- 
ing officer. I was asleep on the ground, having been 
up all the night before, and was awakened by the ter- 
rific roar of musketry and cannon. It seemed as though 
hell was all loose ! I arose and got on my horse, and then 
I saw all our lines between us and the enemy break 
and disappear, and the men flee into the woods. Rose- 
crans went off, I don 't know where ; and the first sight 
that had any consolation in it was an officer, with his 
sword drawn, halting the fugitive soldiers of our army. 
He would halt them and form them into line, and when 
he would get twelve or twenty men together a cannon- 
ball would come into the group, right over our heads, 
and they would fall. As soon as he would get another 
lot together, they would be swept down in the same 
manner. That man, gentlemen, was General Horace 
Porter. He remained there doing that duty until I 
found it necessary to leave, because the enemy were 
getting too near; and I followed General Rosecrans. 
But whether Porter stayed long or little, wherever he 
was, his courage was unwavering, and he was bound 
to do his duty. 

136 



ELIHU ROOT 

AT THE DINNER TO CHARLES A. DANA, JANUARY 16, 1896 

I HAVE been thinking, as I sat here to-night, as I 
observed the splendid patriotism which character- 
izes this club —this club which represents no special 
mission, aims to accomplish no specific purpose, but 
which represents all the grace, the joyousness, the ac- 
tive intellect, and the warm-heartedness of life— of the 
observation of a recent writer, that of all the men who 
have written the English language, the two who per- 
haps have exercised more than any others greater in- 
fluence over the imagination and the morality of men 
have been two who set before themselves no specific 
purpose or mission or reform or moral accomplishment 
whatsoever, but merely sought to picture human life 
as it was— "William Shakespeare and Walter Scott. 
That is, I take it, the characteristic of this club, and 
that is the characteristic of the great journal which has 
been so long conducted by your guest this evening; 
and in that characteristic you find with him a ready 
and a fitting sympathy. 

It is no ordinary thing to accomplish the two ex- 
traordinary results which Mr. Dana has accomplished. 
He is a survival of the days of the great journalists— 
one conspicuous figure left to us from the time when 
James Gordon Bennett, and Henry J. Raymond, and 

137 



138 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

Horace Greeley, and James Watson Webb, and Charles 
A. Dana made the press of New York famous through- 
out the country and throughout the world. He is, we 
may say, a survival of the saurian age of journalism, 
from the time of the pterodactyl and the ichthyosaurus 
of the press. He stands alone, conspicuous in the bright 
light of history and contemporary criticism ; and at the 
same time he stands in the foreground of progress, of 
hopeful accomplishment, and of anticipation for the 
future among all the journalists of to-day. 

In the years that followed the war, when the great 
body of patriotic Americans, all pressing forward on 
parallel lines toward the intensely desired object of 
reunion and freedom and reconstruction, had ceased 
their active efforts because their ends had been at- 
tained—when the momentum of that great patriotic 
movement had died away and our people broke up 
into little bodies, or squads and coteries, seeking dif- 
ferent and minor objects and entering into conflict 
and contest with each other, the great newspaper which 
Mr. Dana controls set itself at once in opposition 
to many an old friend, to many a body of his coun- 
trymen who had regarded him with affection and 
treated him as a comrade ; and the trenchant pen which 
he wielded smote sorely many a man in his prejudices 
and his errors, and many a bitter feeling has grown 
up, as it always must where a faithful public censor 
does his duty. But I cannot help thinking that when, 
in the last few years, all the people of our common 
country have seen that same powerful intellect turning 
aside from personal feeling, from factional irritation, 
from all minor considerations, have heard it sound 



ELIHU ROOT 139 

again as it sounded a third of a century ago— when 
hairs now white were brow^n, when men now active in 
the field were still unborn— when they have heard him 
sound again the clarion note of one America for Ameri- 
cans and ever for Americans, the high refrain of pa- 
triotism—that all the American world thinks kindly 
and gratefully of our great assistant to our great "War 
Secretary, the great Assistant Secretary of War. 



CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 

AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, FEBRUARY 22, 1896 

MOST of US like to talk about ourselves; very few 
like to listen to us. And yet, I appreciate this 
compliment the more from the fact that I am not 
President of the United States, nor a governor, nor 
an ex- governor, nor a judge, nor a diplomat, but sim- 
ply a quiet, retiring member who has been selected as 
the occasion for a dinner. And yet, one knowing this 
club as I do would be unequal to himself, to the occa- 
sion, and to the atmosphere if he did not keenly feel 
beyond the power of words the compliment which you 
pay. 

When President Harrison offered me the Secretary- 
ship of State to succeed Mr. Blaine, a member of the 
Cabinet said to me: ^*Depew, you ought to take this 
place, even if you had to surrender all the trusts, all 
the places of profit, and all the power which are the 
accumulations of a lifetime, even if there was a cer- 
tainty that President Harrison would n't be reelected 
and you could hold the place only for a few months, 
and you could make no fame or reputation as a for- 
eign minister, because you would get your name on 
the list of Secretaries of State." The advantage of 
having a dinner tendered to you by the Lotos Club is 
that you sacrifice nothing, you get a good dinner, you 

140 



Chauncey M, Depew 



CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 141 

meet the best of fellows in the world, and you get your 
name on that list. 

The Lotos Club stands unique among all organiza- 
tions for club life in the United States. It has no 
creed, it has no dogma, it has no politics; it stands 
simply for the hospitality of good-fellowship and the 
catholicity of brains. It makes no difference what 
may be the race or religion, the language or the color 
of the man or woman who can fill that bill, he is liable 
to receive an invitation to dine with the Lotos Club. 
And if, as I look over the twenty-three years of my 
membership, I could recall, or anybody could recall 
and write, the famous men who have been here and the 
nights which they have made famous, the speeches 
which they made and the speeches which were made at 
them, and afterward the gatherings, above or below, 
where the artist, or the general, or the actor, or the 
author revealed himself, that story would add another 
volume, and the most brilliant, to the ''Noctes Am- 
brosianaB. ' ' 

From the stage we have had here Irving and Barrett 
and Booth. From the novelists we have had Wilkie 
Collins and many others; from the historians there 
have been James Anthony Froude and others ; from the 
poets, Oliver Wendell Holmes and Sir Edwin Arnold; 
from journalists, Charles A. Dana, Whitelaw Reid, and 
Murat Halstead; from the army we have had General 
Grant; from every department of life we have had a 
great many. Here has been Canon Kingsley, and here 
has been Conan Doyle, and here has been Mark Twain, 
and here has been George Augustus Sala, and here 
have been those men who in the past twenty-five years 



142 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

have made the history of the most marvelous quarter 
of a century in the history of the world. 

When Gilbert and Sullivan came here the whole 
country was wild about English light opera. The 
lyric never received such attention. Gilbert and Sulli- 
van 's audiences not only occupied the stage, but they 
invaded the choirs. They carried absolutely hopeless 
dissipation into the country churches. ''Pinafore" 
was hammered at us on the piano before breakfast; it 
was banged at us by the bands on the street; it tor- 
tured us on the hand-organ on every corner; it was 
hummed at church, and by some fiend or other every- 
where. It spared neither sex nor condition of life. Yet, 
gentlemen, there is n't a man in this audience to-night 
who could whistle a bar of ''Pinafore," because we 
have advanced beyond "Pinafore," beyond Offenbach, 
so that there is a universality of appreciation in this 
city and in America of the best efforts of the greatest 
composers of the world, which was absolutely unknown 
twenty years ago. And so the world keeps growing 
better — the American world— more broad, more cul- 
tured, more cosmopolitan all the time. 

I remember, soon after Kingsley was here, a visit to 
one of the places in England, on the coast, made fa- 
mous in one of his novels— a grand old Norman castle. 
The dame, a woman of great hospitality, entertained 
us, and the conversation ran upon the beauty of the 
situation and the salubrity of the place. The old 
dame said: "Yes, yes, that is all true; but there is this 
against it, that when we lie awake here at night and 
hear the waves beat against the walls of this castle we 
feel that there is nothing in the world but the Atlantic 



CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 143 

Ocean between us and those dreadful American sav- 
ages. ' ' 

But as we have advanced so that we can look at the 
bad and differentiate without trouble or passion, we 
have in a measure lost enthusiasm. And I lament this 
loss of enthusiasm. It is the property of civilization 
and the property of culture to suppress enthusiasm as 
bad form. A man may feel, but he must n't shout. 
It 's bad form to shout. I remember seeing the Sev- 
enth Regiment go down Broadway when it was march- 
ing at the first call of President Lincoln for the pro- 
tection of the Capitol at Washington. I remember the 
tens of thousands who crowded the sidewalks and the 
side streets, and who filled the windows and balconies, 
every one of whom was in full sympathy with and 
apprehended what was to be done. They were all of 
them unfamiliar with war and its horrors, and were 
having the first taste of it. In every little crowd there 
was a mother or a sister or a brother or a father who 
had some one in that regiment, and at the sight of a 
little flag, a little wave of the handkerchief, or the 
slightest recognition of the regiment, there would be a 
tremendous burst of feeling that made one feel in the 
throbbing and in the pulsations of his heart that it was 
scarcely possible to longer live or breathe. To have 
known one such moment and survived it is worth ten 
years of ordinary life. 

I remember, as a boy, the wild hurrah which met the 
name of Henry Clay. I remember— most of you re- 
member—being carried away upon the waves of tumul- 
tuous emotion Avhich swept against the imperturbable 
figure of General Grant. And yet we are in the midst 



144 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

of a presidential year, and there is no enthusiasm. 
The Democrats have n't any, and the Eepublicans have 
little. It is a time when politicians become statesmen 
and statesmen become exaggerated in the ordinary ap- 
prehension ; and yet when people ought to be frescoing 
some great idol they are analyzing him. When they 
ought to be getting up on their hind legs and yelling 
themselves hoarse for some leader they are doubting 
his intention, and are turning upon him the wonderful 
cathode ray. 

Now, what is the matter? Has the passion died 
out? Has enthusiasm disappeared from the American 
people ? Is there no possibility of arousing it by man 
or by call so that it will have sufficient sustaining 
power to outlast a campaign? This world-wide sym- 
pathy which comes from the morning paper, bringing 
us in touch by electric communication with all the 
world, somehow or other diminishes before night the 
enthusiasm with which we start out in the morning. 
It knocks us endwise before the sun goes down by 
denying in the evening paper the things that raised 
our hair in the morning. 

I remember that Governor Seymour, one of the most 
kind, one of the most courtly, and one of the most 
genial and charming gentlemen who ever appeared in 
public life— I remember that he was Governor of the 
State, while I, as a sort of boy, was Secretary of State. 
He was renominated as governor, and I, belonging to 
the opposite political party, was all the time on his 
track, speaking after him every night. In my wild 
enthusiasm I decorated him in a way that would make 
me blush so that I would be flayed alive by the mere 



CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 145 

proposition to-day. When I met him after he was de- 
feated I thought he would n't speak to me. But every 
one in politics knows better. For politics is a kaleido- 
scope ; sometimes you are at one end and sometimes at 
the other. He came up to me with great cordiality and 
said: ''Mr. Depew, you have made a fine canvass." 

I think you could have put me at that time in one 
of these pint bottles. 

"You have got on remarkably at your age," he con- 
tinued, ''but there is nothing in it. For thirty years 
I have watched the men go down Broadway, and around 
the marble pillar up State street to the Capitol, who 
at the moment occupied the attention of the State and 
seemed destined to immortality ; and they have all been 
driven out of politics by being abandoned or neglected 
by their party, and have lost touch with the profes- 
sions or of their locality, and have died in poverty. ' ' 

Once he said to me: "I remember, as a boy, that in 
the War of 1812 there were three men who did some- 
thing on the frontier, and it so impressed the State 
that the government of the State sent a commission up, 
and their remains had to come down by slow proces- 
sions, and it was a magnificent and phenomenal funeral 
pageant from the frontier. They were met by the legis- 
lature and all that there was of the sovereignty of the 
Empire State. In order to emphasize their fame they 
were buried in the grounds of the Capitol. But to-day 
there is no man living who can tell who they were, 
what they did, or where they are buried. ' * I told that 
story to the superintendent when they started build- 
ing the new Capitol. He dug all over the ground and 
found their bones, but, unfortunately, upon them they 

10 



146 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

failed to inscribe their names or to tell what they 
did. 

I was born in the country, where it was possible to 
enthuse, and I believe in enthusiasm as I believe in 
thunder and lightning for clearing the atmosphere. I 
believe we want occasionally a sort of Peter the Hermit 
excitement, which would arouse the people to do some- 
thing or other by which they would escape from this 
commercial spirit which is the cause of it all, where 
there would be that patriotism which sinks selfishness. 

When I visited Galena to deliver the address in Gen- 
eral Grant's State, I went to the house where Grant 
worked when he was in the leather-maker's business. 
It was an old wooden house. As a seller of leather 
General Grant was worth only six hundred dollars, 
and it is doubtful if he was worth that. But when 
he was General of the Army of the United States and 
spending three million dollars a day he was worth the 
life of the Republic. 

I saw the remains of that pile of logs, totally with- 
out comfort, in which Lincoln originated ; and he, fail- 
ing in everything in the practical affairs of life as far 
as distinction was concerned, in the magnificent enthu- 
siasm by which nations test themselves and become 
great, he could put his name to a document which did 
what statesmen had despaired of, that had destroyed 
congresses, that had ruined reputations, that had been 
the nightmare of a century— and become immortal by 
freeing four millions of human beings. 

There is something about the enthusiasm of a great 
people, in its majesty and its superb development, 
which takes the man of the hour and lifts him, because 



CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 147 

of the very enthusiasm behind him, into something 
grander and better and greater than he would ever be 
by himself, because he represents the power and the 
majesty of the multitudes behind. 

Now, I notice another thing which has happened in 
all these years, and that is that now it is utterly im- 
possible for press or people to treat crises or individ- 
uals seriously. All we care for as a people is to get 
some fun out of it. It does n't make any difference how 
solemn the statesman— the more solemn he is, the more 
fun we get out of him. It does n 't make any difference 
how grave the crisis, whether in politics, in the church, 
or in the state, we get some fun out of it. And we 
are using that process— it is the only process which 
we have discovered— to bring down the heroes of the 
past so that we can get a horizontal view of them. I 
was buying an apple two or three days ago from a 
street vender, and just then a military figure walked 
by in a linen duster and carrying a grip-sack. I said 
to the apple-vender: ^' There 's ex-President Hayes!" 
"Never mind him, Mr. Depew; the apple which you 
have selected is not as good as this; this has no flaws 
in it." 

We take our greatest idols and bring them down 
sometimes to get a horizontal view, and sometimes to 
hit a statesman of the hour. Down in Washington the 
Populist senator, full of the majesty of his position, 
submits his grave face to the barber's heart, and as 
he looks at the old darky, he says to him: ''Uncle, 
you must have met with a great many of the men of 
the past. My predecessors in the Senate, many of 
them, have occupied the same chair which I now fill." 



148 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

''Yas, boss, that 's so; a good many of 'em. You 
somewhat resemble Daniel Webster yourself, boss." 

The Populist senator raises himself up, and, throw- 
ing the cloth off from around his neck, says: ''What 
part of my head is it, uncle? Is it my brow, or 
what?" 

"No, boss; 't ain't nuffin like that. It 's your bref." 

And yet fun has its uses. General Garfield made 
this remark to me just after he was elected : ' ' Chaun- 
cey Depew, let me beg of you never to perpetrate a 
joke, never be guilty of criticism, never tell a story. 
The public of America does not regard a man as serious 
who does any of these things, and that I am here to- 
day is because I have so excluded from my mind the 
necessity of telling a story that I cannot appreciate a 
joke when I hear one." Yet, gentlemen, I would rather 
do something which contributes to the gaiety of nations 
than be the solemn President of the United States. 

My friends, you have given me this celebration on 
Washington's birthday. Why Washington's birthday? 
The highly complimentary and deliciously phrased sen- 
timents of your president do not satisfy my inner con- 
science. I have been studying Washington, delivering 
orations on Washington, and trying to climb up to 
some place where I could see Washington with a tele- 
scope, and I don't know any quality of Washington's 
that is mine except this, that in a measure both of us 
have had some connection with the transportation busi- 
ness. You may not recognize that because you are not 
in the transportation business; but I do, because the 
delightful old gossip and charming old Parson Weems 
says in his story of Washington that in Washington's 



CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 149 

early life he was connected with the then infantile 
transportation system which has grown to have a con- 
trolling power. He says that "Washington took a 
hack at the cherry-tree." The beauty of that is its 
age; but it does not precede Washington's tree. 

Gentlemen, for the first time in the history of our 
State, Washington and Lincoln both have a holiday in 
February. If we can look seriously on Washington's 
birthday, and, on an occasion like this, at both of them, 
what a magnificent contrast, and yet what perfect unity 
they present! Washington, the aristocrat; Washing- 
ton, the slaveholder; Washington, the proprietor of a 
vast domain of magnificent acres; and Lincoln, born 
in the midst of the humblest conditions. Washington 
was by birth, by association, by education, by lineage, 
and by possessions the conservative man of his time 
and the conservator of property. He could, of course, 
when the occasion demanded and when he believed the 
rights and liberties of the country were at stake— he 
could pledge his life, his honor, his fortune for the sal- 
vation of the rights and the liberties of his country; 
and when it came to the freedom of the Republic, and 
when it came to putting new institutions into process, 
he planted in them such conservations and preserva- 
tions for property and for personal liberty against 
revolution as exist in no other system in the world. 

Lincoln was born in a log cabin of one room with an 
earthen floor, among the poor whites of the South, 
where the conditions were such that they paralyzed 
hope, ambition, and work; but, being just where he 
was, if he had been born under such conditions in a 
foreign land, even with his ambitions, his indomitable 

10* 



150 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

energy, his magnificent brain power, and his superb 
faculty of reaching and appealing to the people, he 
would have seen that above him was the crust of social 
and political conditions which would permit no man 
of his class to rise except that crust were broken into 
pieces and ground to powder by social revolution. 
And for this purpose Lincoln would have been a so- 
cialist or an anarchist. And yet, under the institu- 
tions which aristocracy founded, this man of the people, 
born under such conditions, reached the same place 
from that cabin that George Washington reached from 
his palatial mansion and his baronial acres on the 
Potomac. And Abraham Lincoln gave to the preser- 
vation of his country the same magnificent energy, the 
same superb patriotism, the same genius that George 
Washington did for the foundation of the same insti- 
tutions. One at the social property extreme, the other 
at the social poverty extreme— these two men, more 
than any others in the world, illustrate the magnificent 
opportunities, the superb inspiration, and the undying 
hopefulness of American liberty! What one, coming 
from the top, did for the foundation of the Republic, 
the other, coming from the bottom, did for the con- 
struction of the States and the salvation of the Repub- 
lic. Their story, their lives, their opposition, and their 
union illustrate that in America there is no place, no 
time for anarchists, no place, no time for socialism, but 
always a place and everywhere a time for energy, for 
pluck, for ambition, and for brains. 

Gentlemen, I greet you here to-night in the good- 
fellowship of this hour; I greet you here to-night in 
the glorious associations and patriotic memories of 



CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 151 

this day. I greet you here to-night in that union and 
communion within these walls where a man is reck- 
oned not for what he has, but for what he is. I am 
delighted to greet you to-night, and it is my wish that 
you may all have long life, health, and happiness, that 
you may enjoy many of these ambrosial nights in the 
future, and that the Lotos Club may be immortal. 



SETH LOW 

AT THE DINNER TO CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW, FEBRUARY 22, 1896 

I HAVE had the pleasure of being present in the 
Lotos Club at dinners given on previous occasions, 
generally to distinguished foreigners. I am glad to be 
present to-night at a dinner given to one who is as 
easily distinguished as an American. I know that Mr. 
Depew can be all things to all men. I don 't mean that 
in the period when he was stumping the State with 
Governor Seymour he was the originator of the state- 
ment that you have heard from a politician of a cer- 
tain time and place who said to his audience: ''Gen- 
tlemen, those are my sentiments, but if they don't suit 
you they can be changed.'' 

On the contrary, I understand that in England Mr. 
Depew is continually mistaken for Gladstone ; that when 
he was in Germany and Yon Moltke was alive, Depew 
and Von Moltke were interchangeable names ; and that 
in France he could hardly be told from Thiers. But 
there is one capital in Europe in which Mr. Depew has 
always been himself, and that is at Constantinople. 
He has never conducted himself there, believe me, in 
such a way as to be mistaken for Abdul Aziz. In other 
words, in spite of all temptations to belong to other 
nations, he is an American. 

152 



SETH LOW 153 

Of course no reference to Depew would be complete 
or tolerably satisfactory that did not refer to his good 
humor— good humor in every sense of the word; good 
humor which he permits the American people to enjoy 
with him. Because he does, we thank him. 

"Well, to know a man thoroughly, gentlemen, some- 
times it is necessary to go through college with him. 
I owe it to one of his classmates, Wayne MacVeagh, 
that I have been permitted to analyze, as he expresses 
it, our idol. I have it upon the authority of Wayne 
MacVeagh that he used to invite Mr. Depew down into 
Pennsylvania ''to save the nation, Mr. Smith." At 
least it w^as true of the Pennsylvania end that no one 
could withstand the logic of his anecdotes or the humor 
of his eloquence. 

But that is not all. The universality of Mr. Depew 's 
humor is as notable as its genuineness. On the Bowery 
I understand that it earned for him the name of 
''Peach"; and in England— if I mistake not, I have it 
from his own lips— he was assured by two Englishmen 
separately, within a week of the time when he had got 
off one of his best jokes, that they thought they saw the 
point. 

This is no small encomium. It was, you remember, 
an Oxford professor who showed his American friends 
through the neighborhood of Oxford, until they came 
to a sign-post that gave directions for travel in this way 
and in that. At the bottom of the post were these 
words: "If you can't read, ask the blacksmith across 
the way." Well, the Americans not unnaturally 
laughed at the legend, and their English guide asked 
what they were laughing at. 



154 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

They said: ''Don't you see anything funny on that 
board?'' 

"Why, no," said the professor. 

They said: "Look again." 

So he looked again, and then he began to laugh, too. 

"Now do you see?" said they. 

' ' Oh, yes, ' ' he said ; ' ' the blacksmith might be out. ' ' 

As this is the anniversary of Washington's birthday, 
I want to say just a single word of Washington and 
his time that is suggested by the contrast between those 
times and these. As I look back upon the achieve- 
ments of Washington and his fellow patriots, they seem 
to be in no sense, in no way, more remarkable than 
in this, that they based an entirely new departure upon 
the experiences that men had in all ages and in all 
places. If you read the pages of the "Federalist" you 
will see how they drew their arguments from the 
experiences of Greece, of Rome, of Switzerland, of 
England, and of France. Everywhere they went back 
into history for principles upon which they were to 
build the new nation ; but they did not slavishly imitate 
the precedents which they studied. They took the 
principles, and wdth those principles they breathed the 
breath of life into a new thing. That was the result, 
I have sometimes thought, of this circumstance: that 
they were still living in an age of the world when most 
of the daily experiences of life were what they had 
been for many centuries. The methods of communi- 
cation were substantially the same : they had. the boat, 
the sailing ship, the horse, and they walked on foot. 
They had not become accustomed to change as you and 
I have. Therefore, they had a reverence for experi- 



SETH LOW 155 

ence that it is very hard for us to have to-day. On 
the other hand, in the midst of these old and custom- 
ary experiences of life they found themselves in a new 
country, where the appeal to their inventiveness and 
to their ingenuity and sense and power of adaptation 
was constant. And out of these two circumstances I 
think— their faith in the experience of men and their 
readiness to adapt old experience to new problems— we 
got the Constitution, which has been described as the 
most wonderful thing that ever was struck out of the 
mind of man at one moment. Now, in our time we 
have became accustomed to change. Take such a thing 
as the X-ray. How^ easily we accept it! It does n't 
seem to us to-day any more singular that wood should 
be glass to some sort of rays than that glass should be 
glass to those rays to which we are accustomed. In 
other ages the man who invented such things would 
have been burned at the stake for witchcraft. In other 
words, progressiveness is a thing which the American 
people have in full abundance. But what I think we 
ought to be very careful to hold on to is that old rever- 
ence for experience upon which the founders of this 
Republic so strongly built. That is the salutation, gen- 
tlemen, that I wanted to make to you, drawn from the 
circumstance that this dinner has been given on Wash- 
ington 's birthday— to ask you to do what you can to 
imbue the minds of the Americans you know with that 
reverence for experience which never can be disre- 
garded without the most disastrous results. 



EOSWELL P. FLOWER 

AT THE DINNER TO CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW, 
FEBRUARY 22, 1896 

WHEN I was a boy in the country, the year before 
Mr. Depew joined this club, he was on the ticket 
for lieutenant-governor with Francis Kernan. This 
was in 1872. He made good speeches then, and he has 
been making them ever since. He told a story then 
that I remember well, for I listened to every word he 
said. He was running against John A. Dix at that 
time, and he said in that audience that he had known 
John A. Dix for a great many years, that he knew his 
history well, that he came over on the Mayflower, that 
he asked to be elected justice of the peace the moment 
he landed, and that he had been in office ever since. 
A man in that audience who thought he knew cried 
out, "You lie!" Depew stopped for about a minute; 
then he said : ' ' I have been three weeks on the stump, 
speaking in larger places than Watertown, and I never 
heard that fact disputed before. ' ' 

At that time Depew had the Democrats with him, 
and I know that he has a good many of them with him 
now. I remember some few years ago, after Depew 
had got something— or rather when he was looking for 
something, I forget which it was— he said to me con- 
fidentially : ' ' Governor, I never went wrong but twice 

156 



ROSWELL P. FLOWER 157 

in my life. Once, when I was a boy, I used to have little 
bits of pantaloons— little bits of things, you know— that 
it did n't make any difference which side was in front 
or which side was behind. Well, one day my mother 
put them on wrong side first, and I found myself run- 
ning away from school instead of going there. But I 
will never do it again. I am going to whoop 'er up 
every time for the straight ticket." 

I wish that Chauncey Depew could be made Presi- 
dent of the United States. I wish he had been nomi- 
nated in 1884. The people of this country, in my judg- 
ment, want more business in the executive chair. They 
want a man not wedded to a tariff so high that you 
can't get over it, or so low that everything can get 
over it. He would give you the right kind of a tariff. 
Our platforms were just alike in 1884 and just alike 
in 1888. Only the men who got in power revised the 
tariff on different lines. They divided it on the line 
on which the old Dakota farmer built his blizzard 
fences : he built them four feet high and six feet thick, 
so that when the tornado came and the blank thing 
went over it was two feet higher than it was before. 



JOSEPH JEFFERSON 

AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, APRIL 4, 1896 

WHILE I may have had some floating idea in 
my mind that my professional services had 
been recognized, I had no idea that I was such a good 
man nntil your president made his remarks. In the 
** School for Scandal," if I remember rightly, the law- 
yer says, after having done an honorable action: 
"Ladies and gentlemen: I hope you will not mention 
this matter." And Sir Peter says: "Why, man, are 
you ashamed of having done an honorable action?" 
"No," said the lawyer, "but I live by the badness of 
my character, and if it were once known that I had 
done an honorable thing it might ruin my reputation. ' ' 

Now, you have heard the compliments that have been 
hurled at me to-night, and have seen all these beautiful 
little souvenirs that have appeared before me. I hope 
that as you are members of this club you won't let it 
go any further, for if I don't do some dreadful deed 
shortly my friends will begin to suspect me. 

It is natural that I should be very much moved at 
a reception like this given to me in the city of New 
York. You will possibly be surprised when I tell you 
that my first theatrical appearance in New York took 
place nearly sixty years ago. In looking over Ireland's 
history of the stage I find that "one Master Joseph 

158 



JOSEPH JEFFERSON 159 

Jefferson," who I presume was myself, in the year 1837 
appeared for the benefit of one- Master Titns ; that the 
said Joseph Jefferson was then seven or eight years 
of age, and the beneficiary about ten. We were an- 
nounced, I find, to appear in a terrific broadsword com- 
bat. You will find it all as I tell you. I would n't 
dare to mention such a thing if it could not be proved 
by the records. It is hardly to be believed that the in- 
habitants at that time would have permitted such an 
exhibition. I was dressed as a Spanish pirate, possibly 
a privateer, in honor of the beneficiary ; and naturally, 
he being dressed as an American sailor, I was to be 
overcome by him. I had no political opinions in this 
matter, it was purely professional; but as I lay upon 
the stage the American sailor placed his foot upon 
my breast, waved the Star Spangled Banner aloft, and 
the curtain came down with great applause. You would 
scarcely believe it, but I remember it perfectly, and I 
believe the beneficiary, if he happens to be alive, would 
remember it too, for it is traditional that I came near 
cutting off the toe of little Titus in the conflict. 

It may seem a little vulgar to talk shop; but no. 
Oliver Wendell Holmes told me once that a man ought 
always to talk shop. He said he did n't like to take 
medicine, but he always liked to talk about it, and that 
he himself always talked shop, and he begged me on 
that occasion to talk shop. And that is the reason, pos- 
sibly, why I have taken the liberty to talk shop to you, 
because it is the only thing that I know. 

After this terrific combat that I speak of there came 
several other experiences which I remember. 

My father was something of an itinerant, and we 



160 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

wandered toward the West, where we found ourselves 
sometimes walking from one town to another— not for 
exercise, I assure you. We found ourselves in the 
town of Springfield, Illinois, and stranded. There 
were no telegraphs, and no railroads by which we could 
get home. There we were, about to open, and, unfortu- 
nately, a religious revival was taking place in the town. 
A prohibitory license fee was placed upon our perform- 
ance, and we were helpless. A lawyer came forward 
and offered his services to see if he could n't have the 
license fee remitted. He put the case before the coun- 
cil, charging nothing for his services, and by his wit 
and humor the license fee was removed and we were al- 
lowed to go on. That lawyer afterward became a very 
interesting figure in this country, and held a very im- 
portant position. He now lies buried outside Spring- 
field, under a monument recording the life and virtues 
of Abraham Lincoln. 

And so time went on, and I found myself then, I 
think, in the city of New Orleans, and it was on the 
day of some patriotic occasion, either the battle of New 
Orleans or the birthday of Washington, and the man- 
ager, half patriotic and half commercial, arranged that 
on that occasion the ^'Star Spangled Banner" should be 
sung by the company. I was of the company, and was 
deputed to open the program. I was a boy at that 
time and had a pretty good voice, and used to lead the 
choruses in the operas as they came along. I was 
deputed to sing the first verse. I never felt so nervous 
in my life— not even to-night. I had studied it and 
studied it until I knew it backward, and I 'm afraid 
that 's the way I sang it. 

I came forward in that audience, a mass of human 



JOSEPH JEFFERSON 161 

faces, and I was blind with nervousness. I could see 
nothing but this great wall of human faces before me. 
My mother was waiting in a wing, with great hopes 
of her son. I went forward to commence the first 
verse, and I began: ''0 say, can you see—" and there 
I stuck. I tried it again: ''0 say, can you see—" I 
stuck again. I don't know whether they could see, 
but I certainly could not. I hope none of you will 
ever be hissed from the stage, but on that occasion I 
was literally hissed off the stage. The stage manager, 
who was a German, yelled, ' ' Go on, Yoe ! " ' ^ But ' ' Yoe ' ' 
could n't go on, and so "Yoe" went off. I staggered 
to the wing, threw myself in my mother's arms, and 
we cried it out together. I am fairly patriotic and 
love my country, but on this occasion I cursed our 
national anthem from the bottom of my heart. 

Again, as time goes on, I find myself here among you, 
bidding farewell, with my friend, our fellow-member, 
the dear and beloved Billy Florence, whom you all re- 
member. We were to appear for the last time in Eng- 
lish comedy, and he came to me and said : ' ' Don 't you 
think, as we shall naturally be expected to make a 
speech to-night, that we should prepare something ? " I 
told him that I thought it was a very wise precaution. 
So we prepared a little extemporaneous wit. I was to 
make some remark, and he was to reply to it as if he 
had never heard of it before ; I was to reply to what he 
said, etcetera. "We believed in this preparation, and we 
had everything ready. The actors were at the wings 
ready to listen to what we had to say. Well, the cur- 
tain came down, and the audience did n't call us out 
at all! 

You see how important preparation is on such an 



162 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

occasion. So my life has gone on step by step until the 
present moment, when I find myself surrounded by 
many whom I know and many who must know me. I 
find myself here, honored by one of New York's great 
clubs; and I need not tell you that as I appeared in 
this city over sixty years ago, when, as you are aware, 
my appearance was not of a startlingly dramatic na- 
ture, it is quite likely that some of your fathers and 
grandfathers, possibly your great-grandfathers or their 
friends, may have witnessed me when I was a child 
upon the stage. To be here now, after sixty years, 
gentlemen, in health and strength, honored by this club 
and able to address you,— to address, possibly, the de- 
scendants of those ancestors,— is a privilege for which 
I am, and for which I ought to be, most earnestly and 
sincerely grateful. 



PAEKE aODWIN 

AT THE DINNER TO JOSEPH JEFFERSON, APRIL 4, 1896 

THERE was once a Frenchman who wrote a book 
of maxims, and one of them was that we always 
have a secret feeling of contempt for the man who 
makes us laugh. That is only part true. I have 
no doubt that a conceited Frenchman who could not 
himself make anybody laugh would have a feeling of 
contempt for those who do. I have no doubt that a 
pursy bigot who is so full of self-righteousness that he 
can entertain no other notion but one of himself would 
be opposed to laughing lest the laugh be turned against 
himself. I have no doubt that a lean, haggard fanatic 
who believes that millions upon millions of years ago it 
was decreed that everybody should be miserable, and 
ought to be, would consider a laugh a great sin and 
entirely unorthodox. I have no doubt that a certain 
type of politician, say a senator of the United States, 
who is generally a bag of wind or a bag of gold, and 
who might be devoted to what the economists call the 
unearned increment, might be opposed to a laugh, be- 
cause he knows that laughing is catching and that, if he 
should begin, the whole world would be cachinnating 
at his bombastic pomposity. 

But for the majority the reverse is the truth. We 
have no contempt for those who amuse us ; on the con- 

163 



164 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

trary, we admire and love them. We even go further 
than that; we perhaps go to the other extreme, and 
absolutely forgive them their shortcomings simply be- 
cause they do make us laugh. There was Nick Bot- 
tom, who was not a paragon of human morality; 
yet, is n't he a source of everlasting delight? There 
was Sir Toby Belch; I should n't recommend him 
as an exemplar of modern virtues; he had his pecca- 
dilloes ; yet I hope he will be loved forever. Take per- 
haps the biggest fool that ever appeared upon the sur- 
face of the earth, Don Quixote. We all love him; we 
think he was a fine old gentleman, a noble-hearted man. 
Take the case of Sii^ John Falstaff. Sir John was not 
a saint, although he did say that he had lost his voice 
in early youth by singing anthems, and Shakespeare 
called him the worst liar that ever lived. We might 
say he was a monstrous form of unveracity. He 
took purses on the highway; he picked pockets; he 
robbed the gallows by the wayside. The Prince of 
Wales once said of him that he was "a great, blubber- 
ing mass of adipose ; a great mass of iniquity. ' ' Yet, 
if the question were put to you I do not think there 
is anybody you would be less willing to spare than 
poor old John. Take the case of Bip Van Winkle. 
Rip was not, on the whole, a good Christian. He 
might have been a good Dutchman. He had the habit 
sometimes of saying, when he was inclined to crook 
his elbow, ^'This time don't count." On the whole, 
he was a lazy, good-for-nothing wretch, Bip was. But, 
after all, is n't it right that we should like and ex- 
cuse these people that amuse us? that we should so 
often go a point beyond moral propriety and for- 



PARKE GODWIN 165 

give them all their shortcomings? This life of ours 
is not so superlatively happy a life that we can dis- 
pense with these things. Most of us do not ride 
every day in gilded chariots; we do not lie every 
night on beds of down; we have troubles and dis- 
eases. In this world, too, where we live under a 
series of religions, born in semi-barbaric ages, where 
we live in a society which has its thorns, and which 
perhaps for many of us is like one of those nettle 
swamps where in former times our brothers used to 
send the horse thieves, I say that we are not altogether 
superlatively happy. We have our bad moments ; and 
the fellow who can relieve us and put a sparkle in the 
eye, a smile on the lip, in spite of all, is a man to be 
admired and a man to be loved. 

Even in its cursory form this ability to excite the 
risibles is an admirable one. But when we think of it 
in its higher forms ; when we think of it in the light of 
Aristophanes, who for two thousand years has been the 
delight of learned men of all nations; when we think 
of Cervantes, who for three hundred years has given 
the highest and the most exquisite pleasure to all man- 
kind; when we think of Moliere, who through all the 
darkness and reverses of France has yet been able to 
shed a smile over her history; when we think of our 
own Shakespeare, who for three hundred years past has 
given to all the nations of the earth their supremest 
happiness, I say that we ought to admire, we ought to 
esteem, we ought to love the laughers. 

Think for a moment. This faculty of appreciating 
the ludicrous, this faculty of laughing at the odd, the 
grotesque, the humorous, and the witty, is one of the 

11* 



166 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

highest faculties, one of the richest endowments that 
have been given to our human nature. Suppose that 
we were all born without it, like the grizzly bear— 
what a melancholy set we should be ! Suppose we were 
all of us Scotchmen, who, Macaulay said, could take 
a joke only when it was inserted by a surgical instru- 
ment; suppose that we were confined in our diet to 
red herring and sauerkraut, and a fellow should come 
to us and offer us once in our lives a dinner such as 
the Lotos Club offers to its guests, would not that man 
be worthy of our admiration and of monuments erected 
in the principal cities to his honor ? 

Now all this, gentlemen, is but a long prelude to a 
very short speech. The short speech is this, that we 
have before us to-night one of those rare creatures who 
seem to have been sent into the world to amuse and im- 
prove their fellow-men. He was born unlike other chil- 
dren. Instead of uttering a cry, he uttered a laugh. 
As he has told us to-night, before the short clothes 
were off he *^ Jumped Jim Crow" and played for the 
amusement of his fellows ; and from that time for sixty 
years, by his originality, by his versatility, by his sim- 
plicity, by his naturalness, and by his universal charm, 
he has contributed to the sweetest, the highest, the 
noblest enjoyment of his fellow-men. I may say that 
in all the islands of the sea that are on the other side 
of the globe, if it were announced that Joe Jefferson 
were coming, people would put on their best looks of 
expectation, and when he was gone they would put on 
their brightest smiles of gratitude for having been en- 
tertained by him. And do you know the secret of this 
whole influence over men ? It is expressed in one word, 
and that word is ''heart." It is the heart. 



PARKE GODWIN 167 

It was my good fortune, two or three summers ago, 
to drop down upon him at Buzzard's Bay. The place 
is called Buzzard's Bay because there are no buzzards 
there. As I stepped from the railroad car I said to 
the station-master: ''Will you inform me where Mr. 
Joseph Jefferson lives ? ' ' He said : " Do you know Joe 
Jefferson ? " I said : ' ' Yes, I am very well acquainted 
with him." ''Is that so?" said he. "He 's a good 
un, ain't he?" 

As I was walking along the street to find Mr. Jeffer- 
son's place I met a fisherman. He said: "Why, are 
you acquainted with Joe Jefferson ? I have often fished 
with Joe and Mr. Cleveland. Joe generally catches 
the most fish. The fish seem to think that an actor is 
better to know than a President." 

Well, I found Joe that summer day— I call him Joe 
because Joe means "my dear," "my love," or some- 
thing like that— I found him sitting like Marius amid 
the ruins of Carthage, but in a different mood. His 
house had been burned, and he was contemplating how 
such a thing could happen so early in the spring. I 
think that he had some theory about spontaneous com- 
bustion. My own theory was this, that he had uttered 
some of his old jokes in the latter part of the autumn, 
which had frozen up during the winter, and as the heat 
of the spring came on had thawed out and exploded. 
He came to meet me, and we went toward his tempo- 
rary house. As we approached I saw two or three 
heads coming toward us, and they scampered up to 
Mr. Jefferson and climbed up his legs and his arms, 
and I think they would have climbed up on his head 
or crawled into his ears for the sake of getting nearer 
to that dear old grandsire. 



168 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

We are drawn to this man not only by his art, but 
by his heart. Yon will pardon me for one or two 
more remarks. I have had a sad thought. When Mr. 
Jefferson said that he had been sixty years on the 
stage I thought that perhaps he would be drawing near 
his time. There is a very unpleasant necessity that is 
imposed upon most of us, and that is the necessity of 
disappearing. We don't want to go, but we are obliged 
to go. It occurred to me to ask myself where he is 
going to. And that question was put in my mind by 
my remembrance of an old anecdote which was told 
a long time ago of Lester Wallack and John Brougham. 
They got into a wordy combat and they sparred a good 
deal, and Lester Wallack said a good many sharp 
things good-naturedly, which rather shut up John. 
Suddenly John said: ''I had such a dream the other 
night!" 

''What was it, John?" said Lester. 

"I dreamed that I died, and of course I made my 
way to the gates of heaven as quick as I could in order 
to get a front seat. Who should I see ahead of me but 
Lester Wallack. The gates flew open, and he went in. 
The gates were shut when I got there, and I knocked 
and knocked, and for some time there was no answer. 
Finally I knocked harder, and then St. Peter came 
out, looking pretty glum. He said to me: ''Who are 
you?" 

" I am John Brougham, the actor. ' ' 

He said: "Go down to the other place; no actors 
admitted here." 

"How 's that?" said I. "I just saw Lester Wallack 
go in here." 



PARKE GODWIN 169 

"Oh, yes, certainly, Lester Wallack; but lie 's no 
actor," replied Peter. 

I am therefore very much concerned about our friend 
Mr. Jefferson, for he is an actor. I am sure of only one 
thing, that wherever he does go, he will carry that gen- 
tle, generous heart of his, and he will be welcomed by 
all men and all women of gentle, genial, and generous 
natures. 



HENEY VAN DYKE 

AT THE DINNER TO JOSEPH JEFFERSON, APRIL 4, 1896 

THE venerable speaker who preceded me has told 
■us that all religions originated in barbarous ages. 
It may be said in answer that one of these religions 
(to which I confess adherence) has been the leading 
light of civilization for eighteen centuries. And in 
coming to do honor to Mr. Joseph Jefferson to-night I 
have felt no need of leaving that religion behind me. 

There was once a Methodist convention out in Chi- 
cago, and one of the preachers in attendance took a 
walk between the sessions. He met a cowboy who was 
feeling pretty well and who clapped him on the shoul- 
der and said: ^' Hello, stranger! Come and have a 
drink. ' ' 

''I don't drink," said the clergyman. 

"Then come and have a cigar," said the cowboy. 

'*I don't smoke," replied the minister. 

The cattleman looked him over, and said: ''What 's 
the matter with you, anyway? Have n't you got any 
fun in you?" '' Not a bit, " said the preacher. ''Well," 
said the cowboy, "I 'm going to find out," and he 
gripped him. So they had a lively little tussle, and 
the preacher dusted the pavement with the cowboy, 
and then sat him up against the fence. He looked up 
in mild surprise and said : 

170 



HENRY VAN DYKE 171 

''What do you want to lie like that for? You are 
chock full of fun." 

Now, I wish I were chock full of fun ; I would pour 
it out to-night. I am glad to be here because this is 
not a genealogical affair. New York has gone crazy 
lately over such things. We have got societies of 1812 ; 
societies of the Revolutionary War; colonial societies 
of all kinds; the only thing lacking is an Adam and 
Eve society to complete the list. We may almost say 
that our dinners in New York this winter have all been 
in honor of our ancestors. But to-night we are mighty 
glad that we are here not to do honor to one who is 
dead, but who is alive, and very much alive. 

Who does n't know Joseph Jefferson? An old lady, 
when asked if she knew him, said : ' ' Joseph Jefferson ? 
Why, yes ; I have seen him in all his caricatures. ' ' 

Mr. Jefferson is a speaker himself, and I wonder how 
he likes being obliged to sit still and have others speak 
for him, and to him, and about him. He knows how 
often a speaker's words run away with his meaning, 
and as he sits smiling at us I am sure he has a secret 
sense of uncertainty as to what is coming next. I sup- 
pose he feels very much like that child— perhaps you 
have heard the story. This little girl came to her 
mother and said: ''Ma, Johnny and I just had a mad 
cow chase us, and we were saved by prayer." 

"How was that?" inquired the mother. 

"We were running across the field, and this cow came 
after us just as fast as ever she could come. I said to 
Johnny that he must pray. Johnny said all he could 
think of was what papa always says before breakfast, 
and he said that: 'For what we are about to receive, 



172 SPEECHES AT THE LOJOS CLUB 

the Lord make us truly thankful,' and then the cow 
went away." 

I do not know just where to strike into this subject 
to-night. Mr. Jefferson is a master of the seven lib- 
eral arts— the art of painting, the art of agriculture— 
(Turning to Mr. Jefferson : Oh, I have been up in Para- 
dise Valley, and I know your record as a farmer. Up 
there you are often confused with Thomas Jefferson.) 
Mr. Jefferson is a master of painting and agriculture 
and oratory and literature and fishing and singing and 
acting, we all know; but the greatest thing is that he 
is a master of the art of living— the art of living cheer- 
fully and cleanly and happily and helpfully to hu- 
manity. 

It is said, by those who know, that the stage is a 
difficult place to lead that kind of life. I do not know. 
I am willing to take the testimony of men who say it. 
But Mr. Jefferson is a proof that ''some things can be 
done as well as others," and that a man can lead a 
very fine and noble life in the actor's profession. 
When a man does that, all the more honor and praise 
and gratitude are due him for showing us how the role 
of genuine manhood should be played con amove. 

well for him who finds a friend, 
Or makes a friend where'er he come j 

Who loves the world from end to end, 
And wanders on from home to home. 

Sixty years ago, sir, you came to this city, and you 
tell us they called you then ''Master Joseph Jefferson." 
We still call you ''Master Joseph Jefferson." 



JOHN A. TAYLOE 

AT THE DINNER TO JOSEPH JEFFERSON, APRIL 4, 1896 

IT is, to iny mind, gentlemen, a creditable thing to 
our civilization that a body of men such as this 
should come together to honor a man such as our dis- 
tinguished guest is— a man who is not too far above 
us to be above the common plane of our social life, and 
yet is far enough above us to command our confidence 
and esteem. 

I think we are accustomed to think, gentlemen, that 
occasions like this have nothing more about them than 
the pleasure of the hour. I think it is a common esti- 
mate that men put upon us that social clubs like this 
are composed largely of men who are superficial in 
their treatment of the affairs of life, and who only 
want to enjoy themselves. Gentlemen, if our entire 
civilization were wiped out to-night except as it is rep- 
resented at this banquet-table here by all forms of writ- 
ing and printing, and all the inventions were them- 
selves to be done away with, I think that here in this 
room these men who are laughing and eating and 
drinking about these tables, and who are looking into 
the faces of the men who are speaking here, have in 
them the capacity and the power and the ability to 
reorganize a civilization and marshal their forces at the 

173 



174 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

head of the State, and to re-create all that the nine- 
teenth century has given of wisdom or social sagacity. 

You have in the past invited to this festal table many 
distinguished guests— so many and so distinguished 
that no author, or soldier, or statesman has come to be so 
well known and so favorably received in our country 
that he has not taken on an added dignity to find at 
some climax of his career his forehead crowned with 
the laurels of this club. Yet you have never invited 
us to drain our glasses to one of all that distinguished 
host of men to whom our hearts have gone out in more 
spontaneous response than to him whose auspicious 
future we pledge to-night. 

For more than two human generations he has been 
holding before us those matchless pictures of human 
fellowship which, behind the different characters of 
the play-bill, have been, after all, but poor and flimsy 
devices through which he has opened up to us the 
beautiful avenues of his own generous heart, and has 
bidden us all to saunter down the pleasant paths which 
lead to his own gracious presence. For who of us has 
ever been so blinded by the pinched and wizened face 
of Caleb Plummer that we have not seen behind it the 
glowing personality of our guest? Or that we have 
not seen behind the frayed buckskin of Rip Van Win- 
kle that great fund of kindly human nature so charac- 
teristic of Mr. Jefferson? 

So that of all the thousands of people who have been 
lifted up and illuminated by the generous heart and 
the genius of our guest, there is not one sitting here 
at this table to-night who would hesitate to reach his 
palm across to Mr. Jefferson and expect that genial 



JOHN A. TAYLOR 175 

response which is born of a liberal fund of kindly hu- 
man nature. And so it is that we all find in this man 
those qualities which knit him closely to each of our 
hearts and make us all feel that we are not alone honor- 
ing genius, but that we are honoring a part of our 
common humanity. And do you say that so to carry 
one's self for fifty years is not to signalize this among 
his kind? It certainly bespeaks the best human at- 
tribute. The path to military distinction is strewn 
with the horrors of the battle-field ; the way to forensic 
virtues is lined with the sufferings of defeat ; the sacred 
office of the church even is shrouded with tears and 
groans; but the great actor who holds himself loyally 
and unswervingly to those great fundamental princi- 
ples which underlie and uplift humanity, who has in 
his own heart the best evidences of human conduct, 
who holds above the souls of men these shining exam- 
ples, sets the pace for humanity at large, and is a 
material element which enters into the uplifting of the 
world. 

And so it is that, sitting down to-night, Joe Jefferson, 
with your friends here at the table, above the welcome 
music of their words of praise and above the shouts of 
their applause, we are all glad to believe that you cheer- 
fully recognize that the thing about you which we do 
most of all admire and love is not the matchless skill 
and art with which you have given us those portraits 
behind the footlights, but it is that everywhere, all the 
time, in your career you have given us no single pic- 
ture there which we did n't know all the while could 
not for a moment be compared with what you are 
yourself. 



SIMEON FOED 

AT THE DINNER TO JOSEPH JEFFERSON, APRIL 4, 1896 

MR. JEFFERSON has graphically described the 
horrors of stage fright, and he knows its symp- 
toms, and if he will diagnose my case he won't need 
any X-rays to see that I have it in its most malignant 
form. It may seem strange that a man who knows 
enough to keep a hotel open does n't know enough to 
keep his face closed ; but it is no fault of mine. Why, 
Mr. President, with all these orators sitting around, 
bursting with suppressed speeches— men with elo- 
quence to burn, and who like to smell of smoke — why, 
I say, have you sprung me upon these innocent people ? 

I should like to say some graceful things about our 
honored guest which are boiling within me, but I 
have n 't the power ; I am not built that way ; and, be- 
sides, I am afraid his hat will bind a little to-morrow 
as it is, and it would be a pity to have him at this late 
day get stuck on himself. It 's a dangerous thing, Mr. 
Jefferson, to get stuck on an actor. 

I have followed Mr. Jefferson's career with interest 
from early boyhood (that is, from my boyhood). At 
first I watched him from above— from the family cir- 
cle, where we had to take off our jackets so we could 
sit close. I watched him as Eip Van Winkle while my 
scalding tears fell upon the heads of the bloated aris- 

176 



SIMEON FORD 177 

tocrats beneath until they had to raise their umbrellas, 
and my merry, infectious laugh echoed and reverber- 
ated from those far heights until the guardian of the 
gallery swooped down and repressed my boyish enthu- 
siasm with a club. 

As I became more affluent I descended through the 
various strata of the theatre until now I have reached 
the $2.50 seats purchased on the sidewalks (which are 
said to be worthless) , and some day yet I may get into 
a box (although I trust it won't be any such hot box 
as I am in now) . And still my scalding tears fall over 
Bip^s tribulations, but, alas! my merry, infectious 
laugh is not now sufficiently contagious to occasion 
alarm. 

I relate all this not that it is of the slightest interest, 
but I want Mr. Jefferson to know that I have freely 
contributed to his support all these years, for he must 
realize that although I can't talk, money talks. I 
know enough to put up, if I don't know enough to 
shut up. 

But I never thought to stretch my legs under the 
same mahogany with Mr. Jefferson (you notice how I 
have stretched 'em), and as I stand here, six feet 
in my stockings (for I do wear stockings, although 
my looks may belie it!), I can feel myself swelling 
with pride— it may not be visible to the naked eye, but 
I am swelling— so that I almost fear I shall be laid up 
to-morrow with what Artemus "Ward used to call ^'a 
severe attack of embonpoint." 

And yet I don't know why I should n't sit at table 
with him, for there are some things in common between 
the actor and the landlord, and yet more which are 

12 



178 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

not in common. The actor and the landlord both take 
in the public, and both provide entertainment for man 
and beast. The landlord gives the people bed and 
board, while in the theatre they get no bed but some- 
times get bored, though never, of course, when Mr. 
Jefferson is on the stage. The landlord gives his 
patrons the best the market affords (in his advertise- 
ments), while the actor has a certain delicacy about 
receiving from his audiences the products of the mar- 
ket—especially the vegetable products. Poor Bill Nye 
used to have a recipe for removing egg stains from the 
garments of lecturers and actors— but that is neither 
here nor there. The pathway of our guest has for 
many years been strewn with flowers, not fruit— and 
certainly not hen-fruit. 

And finally, while it is the actor's privilege to prance 
upon the boards, it is the landlord's privilege to prance 
upon the boarders. 

You remember where Rip inquires of the innkeeper, 
''Is this the village of Falling "Water?" and the inn- 
keeper replies, or would if he were up to date: ''Yes, 
since Tom Piatt took to regulating the heavens above 
and the earth beneath we have had water, water every- 
where, but not a drop to drink. And the Raines Bill 
descended and the floods came, and the winds blew 
and beat upon that house, and dear old Uncle Levi 
hardly knew which side of the fence to drop on in 
order to keep out of the wet; and now the clubs have 
to hang their liquor licenses on the outer walls, and 
the governors thereof cry havoc and let slip the dogs 
of war; and the free lunch has vanished like a tale 
that is told, and there is weeping and wailing and 
gnashing of teeth ; and the band plays on. ' ' 



SIMEON FORD 179 

That sentence is a little involved, but it shows that 
I am highly educated. 

What a character was that of Rip! If such a per- 
son should appear in real life to-day, with that clouded 
intellect and those Pefferian whiskers trimmed to every 
favoring gale, he 'd be sent to Congress as a silver 
senator in spite of everything. 

Mr. President, I am keeping better men from speak- 
ing. I am glad to be here to pay this eloquent tribute 
to our distinguished guest. ''May he live long and 
prosper"— a remark which is not original with me. 

As a landlord I have had much to do with actors, 
and they have had to do with me, and some of them 
have done me. I am the proud possessor of perhaps 
the largest and most interesting collection of actors' 
trunks extant. If I were asked to describe a vacuum 
I would say, "A vacuum is the contents of an actor's 
trunk left with a landlord as collateral for unpaid 
board." If the cathode rays were to penetrate one of 
these trunks, when they got inside they would die of 
homesickness. I have n 't one of Mr. Jefferson 's trunks, 
however. I wish I had, and then I could say with 
Shakespeare's Lucius: 

'* Draw you near 
To shed obsequious tears upon this trunk." 

Gentlemen, on behalf of the landlords, to whom you 
all owe so much, I thank you for not throwing any- 
thing at me. 



JOSEPH JEFFEESON 

AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, APRIL 4, 1896 
(Closing Speech.) 

MY good friend Parke Godwin has been pleased to 
say that he thinks the explosion at my house 
was caused by the fact that I had let off some of my 
old jokes there and that the walls of the house were not 
strong enough to stand it. Why, gentlemen, if the re- 
tailing of my old jokes had an effect of that kind there 
would n't be one stone of the Lotos Club to-night left 
upon earth. I have here told all that I could think of. 
Another playful allusion was made by Mr. Godwin as 
to where I should eventually go. It is rather early, pos- 
sibly, to think of that; but, as Bardolph said of Fal- 
stafff ''Wherever I go, I hope he will be with me." He 
spoke of St. Peter and also of Lester Wallack and John 
Brougham, who, I believe, have met St. Peter, and 
who, I have no doubt, were freely admitted. A pa- 
thetic allusion was once made by an actor who was 
dying. He was one of the sweetest men I ever knew, 
and I was in the room just before he died. He really 
did say, when he was asked if he thought he had made 
his peace with his Maker, and whether he hoped for 
salvation and expected to enter the kingdom of heaven : 
"Oh, yes, I believe they admit the profession." Of 

180 




Joseph Jefferson 



>\Ofe'. 



oV 



JOSEPH JEFFERSON 181 

course it is a difficult thing to say which direction we 
may take. Byron says: 

'* Saint Peter sat by the celestial gate : 

His keys were rusty, and the lock was duU, 

So little trouble had been given of late j 
Not that the place by any means was full, 

But since the Gallic era — * eighty-eight ' — 
The devils had ta'en a longer, stronger pull, 

And * a pull all together,' as they say 

At sea — which drew most souls another way." 

So it is hard to tell which direction Mr. Godwin and 
I may take, but I hope we shall go together. 

The reverend gentleman who complimented me so 
highly, and who said that to-morrow was his busy day, 
mentioned and rather singled me out as knowing how 
to live. Of course the important thing is to know how 
to die. We have heard that life is like a play ; it mat- 
ters not that it should be long, but that it should be 
well acted, and we should be sure to make a good exit. 
Now, then, I do not like, and I must protest against, 
being selected for this exclusively virtuous career. My 
profession is filled with many of the most honest and 
virtuous men and women I have met anywhere. It is 
not for me to defend it; and I know you will pardon 
me on this occasion, for, as I said, it is embarrassing 
to be singled out. I do not want to say with Lear, 
''Pour on, I will endure." 

Now, gentlemen, in conclusion allow me to quote, 
or to requote, the quotation at the end of our souvenir 
to-night : 

"Here's to your health, and to your family's good health, 
May you live long and prosper! " 

12* 



JOHN WATSON 

(IAN MACLAREN) 
AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, DECEMBER 5, 1896 

IT would be an affectation if I said that I was unac- 
customed to public speaking, after inflicting myself 
upon so many American audiences during the last two 
months ; but I trust that you will not think it an affec- 
tation, but the pure utterance of the heart, when I say 
that it is with much difficulty that I rise upon this 
occasion. You have, sir, been most kind, and not only 
eloquent, but far too generous in your references to my 
work, and I have to thank you all, gentlemen, for the 
great kindness with which you have received the presi- 
dent's remarks. It is surely something which a Scotch 
story-teller must remember unto the end of his days, 
that he received so large and so cordial a welcome at 
the hands of this club, devoted to many excellent ob- 
jects, but, I believe, not least to the interests of lit- 
erature and art and the drama and every means of 
culture. 

Your president has referred to Bohemia, and has 
indicated that he thinks there will be struck up an alli- 
ance between Scotland and Bohemia— on first sight one 
of the most unlikely alliances that ever could be con- 
summated. The president no doubt, however, has 
many things in his eye, and when we remember the 

182 



JOHN WATSON 183 

careless garb of a Bohemian and the kilt of Scotland; 
when we remember a Bohemian's tendency to live, if 
he can, in a good-natured way upon his neighbors, and 
the tendency of my respected ancestors to take any cat- 
tle that they could see; and when also we remember 
that a Bohemian's sins are all atoned for by his love of 
letters, and that all the hardness and uncouthness of 
Scotland may well deserve to be passed over because no 
country has ever loved knowledge or scholarship more 
than Scotland, I declare the president is predicting a 
most harmonious marriage. 

Your hospitality is only crowning the great kindness 
which I have received during the past months— a kind- 
ness which I never expected and which I have never 
merited. Were one a lad of twenty-five, I declare it 
would be dangerous, for after the audiences that have 
been good enough to listen to me, and the favor I have 
received, also, at the hands of distinguished men of 
letters, whose welcome to one of the poorest recruits 
that the republic of letters could send has been most 
generous— I declare if I were twenty-five I might be 
confused about my position. One of my friends, full of 
didactic interest and anxious that I should maintain 
my proper place, invented the following slight conver- 
sation: An American, he says, recently entered his 
study— he is a clergyman, and therefore much given 
to morals— and asked him if he knew the man Maclaren. 
He said he did. ''Well," said the American, **we 
consider that there are two men, Shakespeare and Mac- 
laren. ' ' I then began to see the drift of the anecdote. 
''Well," said my Scotch friend, "we also in Scotland 
know them both, but we make a great difference be- 



184 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

tween them.'' ''Yes," said the American, 'Sve place 
Maclaren higher ; he is a deal more sentimentaler. ' ' I 
assured my friend that his effort was not in vain, and 
that if he had ever had any anxiety as regards the con- 
dition of my head, he might rest perfectly assured, for 
I knew my place. 

Gentlemen, when one receives as much kindness as 
I have in America it does n't — if you will excuse an 
expression not quite within the range of literature— 
it does n't swell one's head. But it does something 
better : it swells one 's heart. 

Had I the opportunity, when I return home, of 
speaking to one of the great gods on our Mount Olym- 
pus, or to any man who has the genuine gift of letters 
and who has consecrated his life to that great cause, 
I would venture to point my moral, and what I would 
say to him would be this: If a man who enters the 
republic of letters late in life, and who is fully con- 
scious of his imperfections and who has never counted 
on attaining to any great standard of art, through his 
slowness in beginning and through the exigencies of 
his position, can yet obtain the favorable ear of the 
public because he deals Idndly with humanity, what 
will humanity not add to men richly endowed with 
genius and who have a grace to which no amateur 
writer can aspire? 

That would be my moral; and I am convinced, Mr. 
President, that if those men whom we look up to and 
who sit in high places, whose witchery of style and 
magnificent genius we all respect, could withdraw 
themselves from the study of certain moods which 
we believe are fantastic, and certain sides of human- 



JOHN WATSON 185 

ity confined only to literary coteries and to great cities, 
and could embrace the great, rich, simple, and unaf- 
fected humanity that is throughout all lands, the tri- 
umph they have won in the world of letters would be 
as nothing compared to the triumph they would win 
if, with all their culture, they laid their hand upon the 
heart of the common people. 

During those months it is impossible that one should 
travel to and fro without having formed impressions; 
and it is pleasant to go back with such entirely friendly 
and kindly impressions of the nation whose best 
thought and feeling are represented in this room. One 
has had the privilege of having passed through a polit- 
ical campaign that will ever leave a trace in the mem- 
ory. For one will start up in sleep in days to come, 
hearing in imagination the cry ringing through the car : 
''What 's the matter with William McKinley?" and 
sink back to rest with perfect confidence, lulled to sleep 
with the honest refrain, ''He 's all right." Not that I 
mean that my allegiance to the cause represented by 
that eminent man was quite unshaken, for after having 
been eight hours in bed in Oberlin, Ohio, and being 
awakened on the night of election every fifteen minutes 
by enthusiastic cheers for sound money beneath my 
window, I at length made three resolutions: first— in 
which I hope you will sympathize with me without re- 
bate—a desire to be naturalized immediately as a citi- 
zen of the United States ; second, to try and pass a bill 
to enable me still to vote, though the poll was closed; 
and, third, as I was finally awakened, at six o'clock, by 
shouts for McKinley, I had a desire to go to the poll 
and vote for another person. 



186 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

The undeniable vivacity of your people, which puts 
us poor Englishmen and Scotchmen quite to shame, 
was most excellently shown in that election. It was 
shown beyond anything that I ever could have ima- 
gined, and I understand now why American life so 
largely partakes of excitement, tempered by iced-water. 
One thing profoundly impressed me— I am speaking 
in perfect seriousness— and that was the courtesy of 
your people. Without any question— and I am not 
saying this for the saying's sake— your people are the 
most courteous people one could meet, whether he be 
traveling on the road or engaged in ordinary inter- 
course. Courtesy may be tried by various standards, 
and possibly the highest form of courtesy is respect to 
women, I have never seen anywhere, and certainly 
not among continental nations, who rather boast of 
their courtesy in this direction— I have never seen 
such a genuine, unaffected, and practical courtesy paid 
to the weaker and the gentler sex as I have seen in 
America. 

Courtesy also can be tried by general agreeableness. 
During my tour— and owing to the arduous exercise 
of my friend Major Pond I have never stayed long in 
one place — I have traveled far and wide, and have n't 
always been able to ride in parlor cars. I have conse- 
quently seen much of the people, but with the ex- 
ception of one single person, and she was an immigrant 
and, I have no doubt, a delightful woman, although 
somewhat indifferent as to her personal appearance— 
with the exception of that single individual, I have met 
no woman and no man in the cars with whom I would 
not be willing to sit in the same compartment or the 



JOHN WATSON 187 

same seat of the car during a day's journey. That 
seems to me a remarkable thing, but it may seem to you 
nothing. To us, from a European standpoint, it means 
a great deal. It means the comfort of your people; it 
means the self-respect of your people; it means the 
manners of your people; it means many things on 
which I congratulate you as a nation. Of course 
there may be flaws in the marble, but with this high 
standard of manners there remains only one thing for 
you to do. I have no doubt you do not do it because 
you are afraid of Phariseeism if you become alto- 
gether perfect. But there are certain appliances 
provided, even in a parlor car, which might be re- 
moved. 

I am also struck, Mr. President, by another form of 
courtesy which has greatly impressed me, and that is 
that with you all language is raised to the highest 
point, and your anxious desire is to place everything 
upon the most dignified platform. I have been intro- 
duced to an almost infinite number of men who fought 
in your great war in the rank of commanding officers, 
and to no lawyers who have not attained to the posi- 
tion of judge; and as for my own profession, which 
affords at home only a doctor here and there, it affords 
nothing else in America. This, also, I recognize as a 
great courtesy, and a wish to make life pass agree- 
ably to everybody concerned. The rudeness, or let 
me say uncouthness, of the Englishman was never 
brought home to me more forcibly than when I re- 
cently approached one of your colored brethren in a 
hotel and asked him for the lift. ''Lift, sah?" he 
said. ''Oh, elevator, sah, you mean." Then I knew 



188 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

where I was; and, in fact, that is entirely a parable 
which saves me further explanation. What we call 
*'lift" generally throughout England is called ''ele- 
vator" here; so we are raised here to a higher level. 

And, sir, what has interested me deeply is that while 
you are contending with the difficulties which fall to 
the lot not only of a new and growing people, but of 
a nation into which is flowing the very refuse of Europe, 
there is throughout your people, and especially in the 
"West— I notice in the East you do not always value the 
West at its highest— a great love of letters and of art. 
I have seen again and again in the houses of men who 
are, as they say in Europe, self-made men, who have 
risen suddenly to affluence, abundant evidence that 
their love is set not merely on the things that a man 
holds in his hand, but on the means of culture through 
which we see into the unseen and the beautiful. Some 
of the most lovely pictures of modern art can be found 
in the houses of those men. They do not have their 
pictures, gentlemen, merely as pieces of furniture, 
which they have bought for so much money: but the 
men who have them, as I can bear testimony, can ap- 
preciate the beauty of those pictures and are in no 
mean degree art critics themselves. On the other side 
I have been assured that if a bookseller has a rare 
book— one of those lovely volumes that we should all 
like to have, with a creamy and beautiful binding, and 
marked perhaps with the arms of a king or a pope— 
it is not in England that he finds a purchaser, but in 
America. And, Mr. President, I would congratulate 
you on the fact that to your high spirit and great en- 
terprise you are also adding reverence for the past, 



JOHN WATSON 189 

and especially that love of letters and art which is 
surely the height of perfection. 

I would only add one other thing, and it is this, that 
while the good will between the old country and yours 
can be maintained, and is going to be maintained, by 
honorable self-respect, we are encouraged to cherish the 
hope that the two nations will be bound more and more 
closely together, until at last the day comes when from 
Washington and London may go forth a voice on a 
great international question of righteousness that no 
nation will dare to pass by. While that can be se- 
cured only by the agreement of eminent statesmen, yet 
surely, gentlemen, the coming and going of individuals 
treated after a most friendly fashion on this side, and, 
I trust, also not unkindly on the other side, will not 
only unite men of letters, but also our two great nations 
with silken cords that can never be broken. 

Mr. President and gentlemen of the Lotos Club, I 
thank you for this great honor, which, in my quiet and 
retired life of the future, will never be forgotten. 



WILLIAM WINTER 

AT THE DINNER TO JOHN WATSON (IAN MACLAREN), 
DECEMBER 6, 1896 l 

IT is a pleasure to know, from the assurance we have 
just received, that every man who rises upon the 
platform of the Lotos Club immediately becomes elo- 
quent,— for I do not recall an occasion when the need 
of eloquence was more urgent. In this distinguished 
presence I should have been pleased to remain silent; 
to listen, not to speak. But since, in your kindness, 
you will have it otherwise, I must thank you as well as 
I can, and I do thank you, most sincerely, for the privi- 
lege of participating in your whole-hearted and lovely 
tribute to the great writer who is your guest to-night. 
All that I feel, as an humble and obscure votary of 
literature standing in the presence of one of its masters, 
could not be briefly spoken, but the little that it seems 
essential I should say can be said in a few words. 
My oratorical ministrations, as many of my present 
hearers are aware, have usually, and almost exclusively, 
been invoked upon occasions of farewell,— until I have 
come to feel like that serious Boston clergyman who 
declined to read the wedding service because he con- 
sidered himself ' ' reserved for funerals. ' ' A certain de- 

1 Copyriglit, 1898, by William Winter. By permission of Macmillan Co. 

190 



WILLIAM WINTER 191 

lightful humorist now present, however, has recorded 
for you the reassuring opinion of the grave-digger of 
Drumtochty, that there is no real pleasure in a mar- 
riage, because you never know how it wiU end ; whereas 
there is no risk whatever in a burial. Under these 
circumstances you know what to expect. It is no part 
of my intention to infringe upon the facetious treat- 
ment of this occasion. 

About eight years ago, when I visited for the first 
time [1888] the glorious city of Edinburgh, I had the 
singular good fortune to meet with a venerable gentle- 
man—Captain W. Sandylands— then more than eighty, 
who, in his youth, had personally known Sir Walter 
Scott ; and he described, minutely and with natural en- 
thusiasm, the appearance of that great man, as he had 
often seen him, when walking in Prince's street, on 
his way to and from that Castle-street house which 
has become a shrine of devout pilgrimage from every 
quarter of the world. What a privilege it was to have 
looked upon that astonishing genius— that splendid 
image of chivalry and heroism! To have heard his 
voice ! To have seen his greeting smile ! To have 
clasped the hand that wrote ' ' Ivanhoe ' ' and ' ' The An- 
tiquary," ''Old Mortality" and ''The Lady of the 
Lake"! As I listened, I felt myself drawn nearer 
and ever nearer to the sacred presence of a great 
benefactor; to the presence of that wonderful man, 
who, next to Shakespeare, has, during all my life, been 
to me the most bountiful giver of cheer and strength 
and hope and happy hours. To you, my hearers, for- 
tunate children of the Lotos flower, within the twenty- 
six years of your club life, has fallen the golden op- 



192 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

portunity of personal communion with some of the 
foremost men, whether of action or of thought, who 
have arisen to guide and illumine the age— Froude, 
who so royally depicted the pageantry and pathos of 
the Past; Grant, who so superbly led the warrior le- 
gions of the Present; Charles Kingsley, with his deep 
and touching voice of humanity; Wilkie Collins, with 
his magic wand of mystery and his weird note of ro- 
mance; Oliver Wendell Holmes, the modern Theocri- 
tus, the most comforting of philosophers ; Mark Twain, 
true and tender heart and first humorist of the age; 
and Henry Irving, noble gentleman and prince of 
actors. Those bright names, and many more, will rise 
in your glad remembrance ; and I know you will agree 
that, in every case, when the generous mind pays its 
homage to the worth of a great man, the impulse is 
not that of adulation, but that of gratitude. Such is 
the feeling of this hour, when now you are assembled 
to honor the author of the ''Bonnie Brier Bush," the 
most exquisite literary artist, in the vein of mingled 
humor and pathos, who has risen in Scotland since the 
age when Sir Walter Scott,— out of the munificence 
of his fertile genius,— created Wamba the Jester, Cud- 
die Headrigg, Caleb Balderstone, Dugald Dalgetty, 
Dominie Sampson, and Jeannie Deans. 

There are two principles of art, or canons of criti- 
cism, call them what you will, to which my allegiance 
is irrevocably plighted: that it is ahvays best to show 
to mankind the things which are to be emulated, 
rather than the things which are to be shunned, and 
(since the moral element, whether as morality or im- 
morality, is present in all things, perpetually obvious. 



WILLIAM WINTER 193 

and always able to take care of itself) that no work 
of art should have an avowed moral. Those princi- 
ples are conspicuously illustrated in the writings of 
Dr. Watson. Without didacticism they teach, and 
without effort they charm. Their strength is elemen- 
tal; their stroke is no less swift than sure,— like the 
scimetar of Saladin, which, with one sudden waft 
of the strong and skilful hand, could shear in twain the 
scarf of silk or the cushion of down. Dr. Watson has 
himself told you that ^'we cannot analyze a spiritual 
fact. ' ' We all know that the spirit of his art is noble, 
and that its influence is tender and sweet. We all 
know that it has, again and again, suddenly, and at 
the same instant, brought the smile to our lips and the 
tears into our eyes. I cannot designate its secret. I 
suppose it to be the same inaccessible charm of truth 
that hallows the simple words of the dying Lear: 

^' Pray you undo this button : Thank you, sir ; " 

the same ineffable pathos that is in the death speech 
of Brutus: 

^' Night hangs upon mine eyes -, my bones would rest, 
That have but labour'd to attain this hour -, " 

the same voice of patient grief that breathes in the 
touching farewell of Cassius: 

^' Time is come round, 
And where I did begin there shaU I end— 
My life is run his compass ; " 

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194 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

the same woeful sense and utterance of human misery 
that thrills through the wonderful words of Timon: 

^' My long sickness 
Of health and living now begins to mend, 
And nothing brings me all things ; " 

the same exquisite flow^ of feeling that is in the lilt of 
Burns, when he sings of the Jacobite cavalier ; 

" He turned him right and round about 
Upon the Irish shore ; 
And gave his bridle reins a shake 
With adieu for evermore, my dear, 
And adieu for evermore." 



I remember that magic touch in some of the poems 
of Richard Henry Stoddard, and in some of the stories 
— the matchless American stories— of Bret Harte. I 
recognize it in the sad talk of poor old Bows, the 
fiddler, when, in the night, upon the bridge at Chat- 
teris, he speaks to the infatuated Pendennis about the 
heartless and brainless actress to whom they both are 
devoted, and drops the stump of his cigar into the 
dark water below. I feel it in that solemn moment 
when, as the tolling bell of the Charterhouse chapel 
calls him for the last time to prayer, the finest gentle- 
man in all fiction answers to his name and stands in 
the presence of the Master: and I say that there is 
but one step from the death-bed of Colonel Newcome 
to the death-bed of William Maclure. 

Through all that is finest and most precious in litera- 
ture, like the King's Yarn in the cables of the old 



WILLIAM WINTER 195 

British navy, runs that lovely note of poetry and 
pathos. So, from age to age, the never-dying torch 
of genius is passed from hand to hand. When Rob- 
ert Burns died, in 1796, it might have been thought 
that the authentic voice of poetry had been hushed 
forever; but, even then, a boy was playing on the 
banks of the Dee, whose song of passion and of grief 
would one day convulse the world; and the name of 
him was Byron. In that year of fatality, 1832, when 
Crabbe and Scott and Goethe died, and when the ob- 
server could not but remember that Keats and Shelley 
and Byron were also gone, it might again have been 
thought that genius had taken its final flight to Hea- 
ven; but, even then, among the pleasant plains of 
Lincolnshire, the young Tennyson was ripening for 
the glory that was to come. And now, when we look 
around us, and see, in England, such writers as Black- 
more, Thomas Hardy, and Rudyard Kipling, and, in 
Scotland, such writers as John Watson, and Barrie, 
and William Black, and Crockett, I think that we may 
feel— much as we reverence the genius of Dickens and 
Thackeray and George Eliot, and much as we deplore 
their loss— that the time of acute mourning for those 
great leaders has come to an end. 

Nor am I surprised that the present awakening of 
poetry, passion, and pathos in literature has come 
from Scotland. When, on a windy Sabbath day of 
cloud and sunshine, I have stood upon the old Calton 
hill, and, under a blue and black sky, seen the white 
smoke from a thousand chimneys drifting over the 
gray city of Edinburgh; when from the breezy, fra- 
grant Braid Hills I have gazed out over the crystal 



196 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

Forth, "whose islands on its bosom lie, like emeralds 
chased with gold"; when from the gloomy height of 
the Necropolis I have looked across to ancient Glas- 
gow and the gaunt and grim Cathedral of Rob Roy; 
when I have seen Dumbarton rock burst through the 
mountainous mist and frown upon the sparkling Clyde ; 
when, from the slopes of Ben Cruachan, I have watched 
the sunset shadows darkening in the dim valleys of 
Glen Strae ; when, just before the dawn, I have paused 
beside the haunted Cona, and looked up at the cold 
stars watching over the black chasms of Glencoe; and 
when, at midnight, I have stood alone in the broken 
and ruined Cathedral of lona, and heard only the 
ghostly fluttering of the rooks and the murmuring 
surges of the desolate sea, I have not wondered that 
Scotland has all the poetry, and that deep in the heart 
of every true Scotchman there is a chord that trembles 
not alone to the immortal melodies of Burns and Scott, 
but to the eternal harmonies of Nature and of God. 
There may be countries that are more romantic and 
more poetical. I have not seen them; and as I think 
of Scotland I echo the beautiful words of Burns : 

'"'' Still o'er the scene my mem'ry wakes, 
And fondly broods with miser care ; 
Time but th' impression deeper makes, 
As streams their channels deeper wear." 

I propose this sentiment: Scotland, its glories, its 
memories, its beauties, and its loves: and I will close 
this address with some verses of mine, expressive of 
the feeling with which I parted from the most sacred 
of Scottish shrines : 



WILLIAM WINTER 197 



FAREWELL TO lONA i 



Shrined among their crystal seas — 
Thus I saw the Hebrides : 

All the land with verdure dight ; 
All the heavens flushed with light ; 

Purple jewels 'neath the tide ; 
Hill and meadow glorified j 

Beasts at ease and birds in air ; 
Life and beauty everywhere ! 

Shrined amid their crystal seas — 
Thus I saw the Hebrides. 



II 

Fading in the sunset smile — 
Thus I left the Holy Isle; 

Saw it slowly fade away, 
Through the mist of parting day ; 

Saw its ruins, grim and old, 
And its bastions, bathed in gold, 

Rifted crag and snowy beach, 

Where the sea-gulls swoop and screech, 

1 Copyriglit by the Macmillan Company, of New York. 
13* 



198 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

Vanish, and the shadows fall, 
To the lonely curlew's call. 

Fading in the sunset smile — 
Thus I left the Holy Isle. 



Ill 

As Columba, old and ill, 
Mounted on the sacred hill, 

Raising: hands of faith and prayer. 
Breathed his benediction there, — 

Stricken with its solemn grace — 
Thus my spirit blessed the place : 

O'er it while the ages range, 

Time be blind and work no change ! 

On its plenty be increase ! 
On its homes perpetual peace ! 

While around its lonely shore 
Wild winds rave and breakers roar. 

Round its blazing hearths be blent 
Virtue, comfort, and content ! 

On its beauty, passing all, 

Ne'er may blight nor shadow fall ! 

Ne'er may vandal foot intrude 
On its sacred solitude ! 



WILLIAM WINTER 199 

May its ancient fame remain 
Glorious, and without a stain j 

And the hope that ne'er departs, 
Live within its loving hearts ! 



IV 

Slowly fades the sunset light, 
Slowly round me falls the night : 

G-one the Isle, and distant far 
All its loves and glories are : 

Yet forever, in my mind. 

Still will sigh the wand'ring wind 



And the music of the seas, 
Mid the lonely Hebrides. 



HOEACE PORTER 

AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, JANUARY 9, 1897 

THEEE is sometimes doubt as to whether there is 
more pleasure regarding a dinner in realization 
or in anticipation. Some think that it is better not 
to give the man the dinner and have people going 
about saying, ''Why don't they give him a dinner?" 
than to have the dinner given to him and then have 
people going about saying, ''Why did you give him a 
dinner?" But having tasted the enjoyment thus far 
this evening, I shall always cast my vote in favor of 
realization and against anticipation. 

You have made things easy for me to-night, sup- 
plied me with everything, made it just as easy for me 
as it was made easy for a man in Texas. I found, 
when I was visiting there two months ago, a fellow 
was going around who said : "I 've struck a big thing 
here. ' ' People said to him : ' ' What 's the matter with 
you?" "Why," said he, "I was sent down here by a 
temperance society from Kansas as a reporter to dis- 
tribute tracts; every time I give a Texas man a tract 
he looks it over, hauls out a six-shooter from one hip 
pocket and a quart bottle of whisky from the other 
and says : 'You drink some of that P. D. Q. or my gun 
will go off.' I have n't had to pay for a drop of 
liquor since I 've been distributing these tracts." 

200 



HORACE PORTER 201 

Your president has treated me very handsomely to- 
night. The only moment in which I did n't like him 
was when he cast his eyes toward me and seemed to 
say, in the language of Menenius: '* Therefore I '11 
watch him till he be dined to my request, and then I '11 
set upon him. ' ' 

I am always glad to listen to our distinguished 
president, for I know him for his great brilliancy after 
dinner and his thorough knowledge of the needs of this 
club. His zeal in the work and his affection for the 
association have enabled him to do more than any other 
man in elevating it to its present exalted position in 
the great family of New York clubs. 

He has just filled me full of his encomiums. The 
only fear is that I cannot get away with them all. 
Some of them might leak out, and I should be in the 
condition of Mark Twain when he made his celebrated 
visit to Niagara and walked in under the falls. He 
said that he got scared and called to his guide, and 
in opening his mouth to do so he thought he took in 
about three fourths of that famous cataract. Then he 
remarked: ''For me it was an anxious and a perilous 
moment. I knew if I should spring a leak I 'd be 
lost." 

My embarrassment to-night lies in the fact that you 
have not given me a toast. When my friend Dr. 
Van Dyke is going to preach he must have a text. 
Why should n 't we have a toast ? Before I get through 
you will probably be saying, as Johnson said to Bos- 
well: "You seem to have nobody to talk about except 
yourself and me, and I 'm sick of both. ' ' 

The easiest thing for me would be to spring on 



202 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

you one of my old campaign speeches. I know them 
all by heart, and could, of course, introduce slight 
changes to bring the thing up to date to suit the occa- 
sion. But I might get into the condition of a Scotch- 
man who was riding on the road that runs from Perth 
to Inverness. He had his ticket in his mouth, chewing 
it. A friend said to him: ^' Sandy, you are getting 
mighty extravagant; that ticket cost you twelve and 
sixpence." "Nay, mon," replied Sandy. ''It is a 
limited ticket, and I 'm only sucking off the date. ' * 

You have dined all the great men of this country 
and from abroad. About the only man you did n't get 
hold of was Li Hung Chang. I wanted him to come 
here. If you had got him down into the coal-hole and 
opened an opium joint down there, he would have been 
robbed of his yellow jacket and his peacock feathers 
earlier in the season than is usual. Not finding him 
at the Lotos Club, I went to see him at his hotel. I 
asked him for a photograph for my little girl, and he 
got the photograph out and got his paint-pot and his 
pencil, holding it as a drummer holds a drumstick, and 
he worked along from right to left, up and down, 
until he covered it all over with hieroglyphics. He 
said— I took his word for it— that on the left-hand side 
was a list of his titles, and on the other side a list of 
the public positions he had held. I took it home, look- 
ing as if I had torn something off the end of a tea- 
chest. My little girl looked it over curiously. I said 
to her: ''Here, there 's what you wanted. If you 
can't read it, probably you can play it on the piano." 

But I have reason to feel grateful to this club. 
When I came here, a stranger among you, you took me 



HORACE PORTER 203 

in and shortly afterward you elected me second vice- 
president of the club. The only reason for this was 
that there was no provision in the by-laws for a third 
vice-president. But what I really like about the Lotos 
Club is the good-fellowship that always prevails here. 
Here we always have the true comrade's touch of the 
elbow and the shoulder to shoulder contact. ''Here/' 
in the language of the redoubtable Richard Chevalier, 
"is the spot that proves most acceptable to the choice 
few.'' Here men meet on common ground, without 
regard to nationality, creed, or avocation. Why, here 
the moose-slayer of the North meets the alligator- 
pursuer of the South; here the man who spends his 
days in tobogganing meets the man who spends his 
nights in coon-hunting ; here the Atlantic-coaster, with 
a stereotyped look on his face, meets the stalwart man 
from the mighty West, who has just crawled out of a 
cyclone cage; here the pursuer and the pursued sit 
down together in that form of original sin put up in 
quart bottles with labels on them. 

And now I want to say here in this presence to-night 
that in all the welcomes you have given to me from 
time to time in this club, the good-fellowship extended 
to me has touched my heart in its inmost depths, and 
I want here to make my most profound acknowledg- 
ment and to express my deepest sense of gratitude 
and appreciation. I shall carry these recollections 
with me as one of the pleasantest memories of life, as 
long as life lasts; and when the span of life is ap- 
proaching its end, when we find our bended forms 
crouching within the shadow of the falling columns of 
life's decay, I know that I, for one, shall find myself 



204 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

indulging in those reveries which are the joyous twi- 
light of the soul. And when, in the Yuletide season, 
sitting by the hearth fire, I shall watch the droppings 
of the grains of sand in Time's great hour-glass and 
count all the brilliant memories of the past, I shall see 
reflected in the flame of the Yule log all the faces that 
have ever looked into mine here. It will recall the 
men with whom I have communed heart to heart and 
soul to soul. Some of them may have their bosoms 
pressed beneath the sods of distant valleys; some of 
them may be in the ocean's depths; some gathered to 
the family tomb; others remaining, not yet having 
joined the other living commonly called the dead: but 
all their faces will pass in review there, and I know I 
shall find myself whispering : * * I cannot but remember 
such things were, and were most precious to me." 



HENEY VAN DYKE 

AT THE DINNER TO HORACE PORTER, JANUARY 9, 1897 

IT seems a little singular that a man of peace should 
be called upon to speak at a dinner which is given 
to a man of war. I will confess that I do not feel like a 
stranger in this most hospitable and friendly and open- 
hearted of New York clubs— the Lotos. I remember 
the kindly welcome which you gave me here a year ago, 
when I had the honor of coming to pay the respects of 
the clergy to such an actor as Mr. Joseph Jefferson. 
And yet, when I look on this title-page, with its blaz- 
onry of bayonets and drums and cannon, and when I 
read the somewhat unpronounceable list of General 
Porter's early works, I find myself in the position of a 
predecessor in the clerical profession on the occasion of 
a memorable excursion, when the whale did the fishing 
and Jonah said, ''I can't help feeling a little out of 
place. ' ' 

My honorable friend General Porter alluded to the 
fact that gentlemen of my profession always speak 
from a text. Tha.t was the old way. General. At pres- 
ent they sometimes speak from a moral example, and 
sometimes from an awful warning. It must be con- 
fessed that the men of peace do sometimes show a most 
unaccountable liking for war. I remember a story 

205 



206 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

which was not told by Dr. Watson when he was here in 
this country— a Scotch story. In Scotland, you know, 
among the Highlanders it is quite customary for the 
dogs to go to church with their masters. Well, the 
minister of a certain church had a very fine and large 
and well-instructed collie, which was quite able to main- 
tain any position that he thought it proper to assume 
in debate with heretical dogs. He was willing to con- 
cede the orthodoxy of most dogs on ordinary occasions ; 
but on one occasion the wrong dog came into the church, 
and the minister's dog thought it proper to settle im- 
mediately the question of that dog's orthodoxy. The 
minister endured it as long as he could, until he thought 
I it was n't going quite the right way; then he said to 
' the owner of the other dog: "Donald, ta' the two tykes 
to the rear of the Mrk. But I 'd have ye to under- 
stand, ma freends, that, ootside o' the sacred precincts 
of the sanctuary, ma doggie can whup any doggie in 
Scotland." 

There was a friend of mine who always told me I 
had made the mistake of my life in not going into the 
cavalry service. This friend was a writer of fiction, and 
his opinion was not based upon my powers as a cavalry- 
man, but purely upon his observation of my practice as 
a preacher. 

And yet, Mr. President, I may as well own up at 
once that there is no man in the world for whom 
I have a higher admiration or respect than I have 
for a brave, true, loyal, honest, clean soldier, such as 
General Porter— a man who has proved his courage on 
the field of battle, and his temperance by not drawing 
a pension, and his versatility by bringing back prob- 



HENRY VAN DYKE 207 

ably a larger stock of war stories than any other man 
now in the United States. Now, there are, you know, 
three kinds of stories in the world— fish stories, war 
stories, and true stories. I never hear General Porter 
break loose without being reminded of my guide in 
the northern part of Maine. He told me a story once 
about a moose. I said: ''That 's a splendid story." 
"That 's nothin'!" said he; ''you ought to hear old 
Bill Masterman tell moose-stories— some of 'em true, 
too." 

I think we should not forget, in doing honor to Gen- 
eral Porter, that he has not only proved that a true and 
right-thinking and conscientious and God-fearing man 
can be a good and brave soldier, but he has also proved 
that a brave soldier can turn around and become the 
very best kind of a citizen. 

I sympathize very fully with what General Ruger 
has said to-night about the army and about the posi- 
tion which it ought to hold in the esteem and the love 
of all citizens of the Republic. A great republic like 
ours must be in a position where she will be able to 
defend the right when questions of right arise between 
nations— mi^s^ be in such a position. But I think at 
the same time that no standing army that we could pos- 
sibly raise, or equip, or support would be of as great 
value to this country in defense of its own rights and 
in the defense of right among the nations, as a true 
martial spirit among all its citizens— a spirit which 
holds itself ready to serve at every high and noble call 
of duty for the sake of the flag and the country, and 
the country's honor; a spirit which is fostered and de- 
veloped by the drill and discipline of voluntary militia 



208 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

service among our young men— a spirit which found a 
peaceful expression, not long since, in that great and 
memorable procession, orderly, obedient, and splendid, 
which passed for one whole day through the streets 
of this metropolis under the marshalship of General 
Horace Porter. 



CHAELES EMOEY SMITH 

AT THE DINNER TO HORACE PORTER, JANUARY 9, 1897 

IT is true that I come from the City of Brotherly 
Love. Coming from that unsophisticated, virtuous, 
and innocent region, I nevertheless have approached 
these precincts without any misgivings; for, knowing 
the high character of this club, I have felt assured, not- 
withstanding what I have recently read, that in com- 
ing here to-night I should not, with the figure of Por- 
ter, meet also a study of Egyptology, And if I had felt 
any misgivings on the subject I should have been reas- 
sured when I entered the room and found among the 
first that I met and greeted the distinguished Police 
Commissioner of New York, whom you had taken the 
precaution to have present from the beginning of the 
entertainment. 

I have indeed, as your president has suggested, en- 
joyed on former occasions the hospitality of the Lotos 
Club. It is abundant. Charles Lamb had a friend of 
whom he said: "He had the habit of taking gin and 
water, goblet on goblet. He sent down the first gob- 
let on a tour of observation, and then he sent down 
the second to see where the first had gone. After that 
he sent down the third to keep company with the 
second ; then he sent down the fourth to let them know 
down there that the fifth was coming, and he next 

u 209 



210 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

sent the fifth to proclaim that it was very far from 
being the last. ' ' 

The hospitality of the Lotos Club is as boundless as 
the thirst of Charles Lamb's friend. Its public spirit 
never flags; it is the foremost to give its tribute to 
literature, to art, to science and the drama, to leader- 
ship in every realm. I know I am only saying what 
has doubtless often been said here, and much better 
said, but as I am not one of you, as I am not even a 
New-Yorker, as I come from an interior city, but am 
an American citizen, solicitous of the good name of my 
country and the impression which it makes upon those 
who come within its borders, I want to say that I am 
proud of the Lotos Club and what it does for our na- 
tional reputation. It does, as I know from the observa- 
tion of years, more than any other organization in this 
land to show to science in every realm the sunny side, 
the appreciative recognition, and the graceful homage 
of true American intellectual life. The foreigner of 
distinction who comes to our shores finds the first prof- 
fered hand and the first public voice of welcome here ; 
and it is fortunate for our national reputation that 
those who do so much to make the public opinion of 
the world receive their first impressions within these 
beautiful, homelike walls and amid these bright and— 
I am sure you will permit me to say, as I look into 
your eyes and observe your spirit to-night— amid these 
gay and genial spirits assembled here. And this Clov— 
I mean Lotos Club— you see I cannot conceal that I 
come from Philadelphia. But the clover leaf is one 
thing and the lotos leaf is another thing. Every star 
has its own glory, and there is no star like the star 



CHARLES EMORY SMITH 211 

of the Lotos Club. This club is as quick to appreciate 
and recognize American genius as foreign genius. 
When Dr. Clark of Rhode Island was elected bishop 
and was paying his last pastoral calls before enter- 
ing upon his bishopric, he visited, among others, a 
lady of his congregation, a good housewife, who was 
distinguished for the size of her family. After he had 
stayed awhile the good doctor rose to go, and the lady 
said to him: "But, doctor, you have n't seen my last 
baby, have you?" ''No, madam," answered the doc- 
tor, ' ' and I never expect to. ' ' And this club, Mr. Pres- 
ident, with its hospitality to genius and leadership, 
will never see the last worthy in the memorable row of 
those who wear the lotos garlands, unless succeeding 
years shall become sterile and no longer bring out lead- 
ers and masters in the various realms. 

I am glad to be here to join in this tribute to Gen- 
eral Porter. I am glad to come from Philadelphia for 
that express purpose. He has gone to Philadelphia on 
more than one occasion to render great and honorable 
service, and I am glad to give him a certificate of char- 
acter, if not from his last place, at least from one of 
them. And I don't mean to say anything to his face 
that I would not dare to say behind his back. He has 
won his great place in public leadership and public 
esteem by the union of brilliancy and sense and by 
rare and extraordinary capacity for doing everything 
well. You call him Porter, but he has the life and 
vivacity and sparkle of champagne. He came origi- 
nally from Pennsylvania, but he has never been slow. 
On the contrary, he has been fast enough— I use the 
word in no technical New York sense— to keep in ad- 



212 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

vance of the stirring life of this great metropolis. You 
think of him and recognize him as the prince of after- 
dinner speakers, and he has given you to-night a 
magnificent display of the scintillation of wit and the 
poetic description and the apt story, always inexhaust- 
ible. But those of you who have heard him on more 
serious occasions know that he has also the power of 
philosophical and analytical and critical, nay, more, of 
impassioned eloquence which commands the highest 
admiration. 

Your gniest was the student of General Grant. He 
came forward under that glorious flag, and he hgts 
achieved a success brilliant, comprehensive, extraordi- 
nary; and in such works as the erection of that great 
tomb, after others had thrown aside the task, he has 
illustrated that indomitable energy, that persever- 
ance, that power of organization, and that genius of 
leadership which distinguish him and which you are 
here to-night to recognize. And underlying it all is 
that true and steadfast quality of manhood which has 
always characterized him. He is eloquent; he is pow- 
erful ; but you remember that saying of the old master : 
'*The weight and value of a sentiment depend upon 
whether there is a man behind it.'' And in all the 
utterances of this man, so modest and unobtrusive as 
to himself, so generous and hearty in his recognition 
of merit in everybody else, you have always seen re- 
vealed the truest and best traits of manhood. 



STEWART L. WOODFORD 

AT THE DINNER TO HORACE PORTER, JANUARY 9, 1897 

AFTER these many brilliant speeches my words shall 
J\. be very few. We are met to do honor to my old 
army comrade, to our friend Horace Porter. I first 
heard of Horace Porter when I went to the Department 
of the South. While in service there as chief of staff 
I heard of an ordnance officer who was regarded by 
every man in that department as singularly prolific of 
brilliant achievements in engineering, and as one of the 
finest artillery officers that the Department of the South 
had known. I first saw Horace Porter when the war 
had closed and he was acting as secretary to General 
Grant. I soon came to know how thoroughly Ulysses 
S. Grant trusted in his judgment, relied upon his in- 
tegrity, and believed in his assured future. 

It has been suggested by our friend Mr. Hewitt that 
General Porter has not received all the recognition that 
is due to him from New York. In political preferment, 
no; in social recognition, yes. In profound and thor- 
ough acknowledgment and appreciation of his worth as 
a man and citizen, Horace Porter to-day is one of the 
honored names of this great city of New York. You 
and I owe to him a debt that we shall recognize in years 
to come, and which we ought to recognize while he is 
with us. After our old hero, succumbing to the last 

14* 213 



214 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

enemy, had been buried at Riverside, and after New 
York had lingered and delayed in providing a fit 
monument, the credit and gratitude are due to Horace 
Porter, more than to one and all of the men of New 
York, that the remains of Ulysses S. Grant are to be 
buried by the Hudson in a mausoleum that shall be 
worthy of the great captain, and that shall stand for- 
ever as an object lesson in patriotism. And when 
the next springtime shall come and that tomb is com- 
pleted and the ashes of our great hero shall be trans- 
ferred to their final resting-place; when the flag of 
every nation in the world shall come into our harbor 
to dip its salute to his memory; when in peaceful uni- 
son the guns of the world on that next birthday shall 
speak their tribute to the memory of Ulysses S. Grant, 
it will be under General Porter's direction, as Presi- 
dent of our Monument Association, that the transfer 
will be made. And if at such an hour the spirit of 
the dead can come back from its place of final blessed- 
ness, I believe that no thought will stir in that spirit 
of our dead soldier more grateful than this: ''My old 
aide-de-camp and my old secretary to-day gives me 
burial here by the Hudson, in the heart of our people. ' ' 
Grant, with us, will thus pay recognition to our friend 
whom we greet to-night. 



WILLIAM WINTEE 

AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, APRIL 24, 1897 i 

THE meaning and the elements of this charming 
spectacle,— the lights, the jiowers, the music, the 
gentle, eager, friendly faces, the kind and generous 
words which have been so graciously spoken, the cor- 
dial sympathy and welcome with which those words 
have been received, the many denotements, unequiv- 
ocal and decisive, of personal good will,— are as touch- 
ing to the heart as they are lovely to the senses, and 
a fond and proud remembrance of this beautiful scene 
will abide with me as long as anything in my life is 
remembered. 

On previous occasions when I have been privileged 
to participate in festivals of the Lotos Club it has been 
my glad province to unite in homage to others: on 
the present occasion I am to thank you,— and I do 
thank you, most heartily,— for a tribute of friendship 
to myself. Gratitude is easy; but an adequate ex- 
pression of it, under the circumstances which exist, is 
well-nigh impossible. The Moslems have a fanciful be- 
lief that the souls of the Faithful, just before they enter 
into Paradise, must walk, barefooted, across a bridge 
of red-hot iron. That ordeal not inaptly typifies the 

1 Copyright, 1898, by William Winter. 
215 



216 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

experience of the honored guest who, at a feast like 
this, is bidden to consider his merits, must hear the 
commendation of his deeds, and must utter his thanks 
for the bounty of praise. My first impulse would be 
to declare that I have done nothing to merit this honor : 
but, without qualification, to disclaim all desert would 
be to impugn your judgment and discredit your kind- 
ness. The great and wise Dr. Johnson, I remember, 
did not scruple to accept the praises of his sovereign. 
^'When the King had said it," he afterward remarked, 
*'it was to be so." My literary life,— dating from the 
publication of my first book, in Boston, in 1854,— has 
extended over a period of forty-three years, thirty- 
seven of which have been passed, in active labor, in 
this community. Since 1865 I have been the accred- 
ited and responsible representative of ''The New- York 
Tribune" in the department of the Drama. In the 
dramatic field, and also in the fields of Poetry, Essay, 
Biography, and Travel, I have put forth my endeavors, 
striving to add something of permanent value to the 
literature of my native land. No one knows so well as 
I do my failures and my defects. But,— I have tried 
to follow the right course; I have done my best; and 
now, in the review of that long period of labor, if you, 
my friends, find anything that is worthy of approval, 
anything that seems, in your eyes, to justify such a 
testimonial as this, it would ill become me to repel an 
approbation which it is honorable to possess, and which 
I have labored and hoped to deserve. When the King 
has said it, it is to be so ! 

While, however, I gratefully accept and deeply value 
the honor that you have bestowed, I feel that you 



WILLIAM WINTER 217 

have intended something much more important and 
significant than a compliment to me. You have de- 
sired to effect a rally of stage veterans and of the 
friends of the stage, and, at a time of theatrical de- 
pression, when the fortunes of the actor seem dubious 
and perplexed, to evince, once more, your practical 
admiration for the great art of acting, your high es- 
teem for the stage as a means of social welfare, and 
your sympathy with every intellectual force that is 
arrayed for its support. The drift of your thought, 
therefore, naturally, is toward a consideration of the 
relation between the theater and society, together with 
the province of those writers by whom that relation is 
habitually discussed. It is a wide subject, and one 
upon which there are many and sharply contrasted 
views. For my own part, I have always believed— 
of all the arts— that they are divinely commissioned 
to lead humanity, and not to follow it, and that it is 
the supreme duty of a writer to advocate, and to ex- 
ercise, a noble influence, rather than much to concern 
himself with the delivery of expert opinions upon indi- 
vidual achievement. The right principle is expressed 
in the quaint words of Emerson : 

*' I hold it a little matter 
Whether your jewel be of pure water, 
A rose diamond or a white, 
But whether it dazzle me with light." 

The essential thing is the inspiration that is fluent 
from a great personality. The passport to momentous 
and permanent victory, whether on the stage or off, is 



218 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

the salutary and ennobling strength of splendid char- 
acter. It is not enough that you possess ability; your 
ability must mean something to others, and the world 
must be exalted by it. 

Many images crowd upon the mind at such a mo- 
ment as this, and many names are remembered which 
it would be good to mention and pleasant to hear. 
My thoughts go back to my young acquaintance with 
such stage advocates as Epes Sargent and Edwin 
Percy Whipple, Henry Giles and William W. Clapp, 
Wallace Thaxter and Charles T. Congdon, Francis A. 
Durivage, Charles Fairbanks, Curtis Guild, and James 
Oakes (the friend of Forrest) ; and, as I think of 
them, I recall a time when Catherine Farren was the 
Juliet of my dreams, and Julia Dean the goddess of 
every youth's idolatry, and when the green curtain (in 
those days it was always green) never rose except 
upon a land of enchantment, and the roses were always 
bright by the calm Bendemeer. Much might be said 
of those old times, and much might be said of the crit- 
ical art, as it was exemplified by those old writers. 
But this is not the moment for either a memoir or an 
essay; and, after all, experience may sometimes utter 
in a sentence the lesson of a life. As I have said 
elsewhere,— to understand human nature; to absorb 
and coordinate the literature of the drama; to see the 
mental, moral, and spiritual aspect of the stage, and 
likewise to see the popular aspect of it ; to write for 
a public of miscellaneous readers, and at the same time 
to respect the feelings and interpret the ambitions of 
actors; to praise with discretion and yet with force; 
to censure without asperity ; to think quickly and speak 



WILLIAM WINTER 219 

quickly, and yet avoid error; to oppose sordid selfish- 
ness, which forever strives to degrade every high ideal ; 
to give not alone knowledge, study, and technical skill, 
but the best powers of the mind and the deepest feel- 
ings of the heart to the embellishment of the art of 
others, and to do that with an art of your own,— this 
it is to accomplish the work of the dramatic reviewer. 
It is a work of serious moment and incessant difficulty. 
But it has its bright side; for, as years speed on and 
life grows bleak and lonesome, it is the Stage that 
gives relief from paltry conventionality; it is the 
Stage, with its sunshine of humor and its glory of 
imagination, that wiles us away from our defeated 
ambitions, our waning fortunes, and the broken idols 
of our vanishing youth. In the long process of social 
development,— at least within the last three hundred 
years,— no other single force has borne a more con- 
spicuous or a more potential part. "The reason of 
things," said Dr. South, ''lies in a small compass, if a 
man could but find it out. ' ' The reason of the Drama 
has never been a mystery. All life has, for its ulti- 
mate object, a spiritual triumph. The Divine Spirit 
works in humanity by many subtle ways. It is man's 
instinctive, intuitive imitation of nature that creates 
artificial objects of beauty. Those, in turn, react upon 
the human mind and deepen and heighten its sense of 
the beautiful. It is man's interpretation of humanity 
that has revealed to him his Divine Father and his 
spiritual destiny. All things work together for that 
result,— the dramatic art deeply and directly, because, 
when rightly administered, it is the pure mirror of all 
that is glorious in character and all that is noble and 



220 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

gentle in the conduct of life; showing ever the ex- 
cellence to be emulated and the glory to be gained, 
soothing our cares, dispelling our troubles, and casting 
the glamour of romantic grace upon all the common- 
places of the world. What happy dreams it has in- 
spired! What grand ideals it has imparted! With 
what gentle friendships it has blessed and beautified 
our lives ! 

Moralists upon the Drama are fond of dwelling on 
its alleged decline from certain *' palmy days" of the 
past,— a vague period which no one distinctly remem- 
bers or defines, and which still recedes, the more dili- 
gently it is pursued, ' ' in the dark backward and abysm 
of time." One difference between the Past and the 
Present is that the stage which once lived in a camp 
now lives in a palace. Another difference is that emi- 
nent talents which once were concentrated are now 
diffused. The standard of taste has fluctuated. At 
the beginning of the century it appears to have been 
more fastidious and more intellectual than it is now, 
but not more so than it has two or three times been, 
within the intervening period. In my boyhood the 
great tragic genius of the stage was the elder Booth, 
whom I saw as Pescara, during his last engagement 
in Boston, in 1851,— -and a magnificent image he was, 
of appalling power and terror. The popular sovereign, 
however, was Edwin Forrest, and for many years his 
influence survived, affecting the style of such com- 
peers as Eddy, Neafie, Scott, Proctor, Kirby, and Mar- 
shall, and more or less molding that of the romantic 
Edwin Adams, the intellectual Lawrence Barrett, and 
the gentle, generous, affectionate, stalwart John Mc- 



WILLIAM WINTER 221 

Cullough, ''the noblest Eoman of them all." In com- 
edy the prevalent tradition was that of Finn,— whom 
I never saw, but of whom I constantly heard,— but 
the actual prince was the elder Wallack ; and very soon 
after he had sparkled into splendid popularity the rosy 
gods of mirth released such messengers of happiness as 
Warren and Gilbert, Burton and Blake, Hackett and 
Fisher, Placide and Owens, and the buoyant John 
Brougham, whose memory is still cherished in all our 
hearts. A little later, — the more intellectual taste in 
tragedy gaining a sudden preeminence, from the reac- 
tion against Forrest,— the spiritual beauty and the 
wild and thrilling genius of Edwin Booth enchanted 
the public mind and captured an absolute sovereignty 
of the serious stage; while, in comedy, the glittering 
figure of Lester Wallack bore to the front rank, and 
reared more splendidly than ever before, the standard 
of Wilks, and Lewis, and Elliston, which had been pre- 
served and transmitted by Charles Kemble, the elder 
Wallack, and both the chieftains of the house of Mat- 
thews. Meanwhile Murdock, Yandenhoff, E. L. Daven- 
port, and the younger James Wallack maintained, in 
royal state, the fine classic tradition of Kemble, Cooper, 
Macready, and Young ; the grandeur of Sarah Siddons 
lived again in Charlotte Cushman; and, in the realm 
of imaginative, romantic, human drama, a more ex- 
quisite artist of humor and of tears than ever yet had 
risen on our stage— an artist who is to Acting what 
Reynolds was to Painting and what Hood was to Po- 
etry—carried natural portraiture to ideal perfection, 
and made illustrious the name of Joseph Jefferson. 
The stage, in itself, is not degenerate. The old fires 



222 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

are not yet dead. The world moves onward, and *'the 
palmy days" move onward with the world. At this 
moment the public taste is fickle and the public mo- 
rality infirm; but this moment is reactionary, and of 
course it will not last. The stage has been degraded; 
the press has been polluted; the church has been 
shaken; the whole fabric of society has been threat- 
ened. The assaults of materialism, blighting faith and 
discrediting romance, have had a temporary triumph. 
The dangerous delusion that there is a divinity in the 
untaught multitude has everywhere promoted disorder, 
violence, and vulgarity. So, from time to time, the 
dregs endeavor to reach the top. But all this fever 
and turmoil will pass ; and, in those saner times which 
are at hand, the Stage, as we know it and love it,— 
the stage of Wignell and Dunlap, the stage of Keach 
and Barry, the stage of Wallack, and Booth, and 
Henry Irving, and Augustin Daly, the stage that, in 
our day, has been adorned by Eachel, Ristori, Seebach, 
Janauschek, and Modjeska, and by Adelaide Neilson 
and Mary Anderson (twin stars of loveliness, the one 
all passion and sorrow, the other all innocence, light, 
and joy!), the stage that possesses the wild, poetic 
beauty and rare, elusive, celestial spirit of Ellen Terry, 
and the enchanting womanhood and blithe, gleeful, 
tender human charm of Ada Rehan, the stage that 
is consecrated to intellect, genius and beauty,— will 
again assert its splendid power, and will again rejoice 
in all the honors, and manifest all the inherent virtues, 
of the stage of our forefathers, in the best of their 
golden days. 
But I detain you too long from voices more eloquent 



WILLIAM WINTER 223 

than mine, and thoughts more worthy. There is little 
more to be said. My career as an active writer about 
the stage may, perhaps, be drawing to a close. It has 
covered the period of more than one generation ; it has 
been freighted with exacting responsibility ; it has been 
inexpressibly laborious ; and its conclusion would cause 
me no regret. I have no enmities, and if ever in my 
life I have wounded any heart, I have done so with- 
out intention, and I hope that my error may be for- 
given. For the rest, I should exactly express my feel- 
ings, if I might venture to use the words of Landor : 

'^ I strove with none, for none was worth my strife -, 
Nature I loved, and next to Nature, Art -, 
I warmed both hands against the fire of Hf e : 
It sinks, and I am ready to depart." 

Let me close this response with some lines that I 
have written, remembering other days and other faces, 
now hidden behind the veil, and remembering that 
for me also the curtain may soon fall : 



MEMORY.i 



A tangled garden, bleak and dry 
And silent 'neath a dark'ning sky, 
Is all that barren Age retains 
Of costly Youth's superb domains. 
Mute in its bosom, cold and lone, 
A dial watches, on a stone ', 

1 Copyright by the Macmillan Company, of New York. 



224 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

The vines are sere, the haggard boughs 
In dusky torpor dream and drowse ; 
The paths are deep with yellow leaves, 
In which the wind of evening grieves ; 
And up and down, and to and fro, 
One pale gray shadow wanders slow. 



II 

When now the fading sunset gleams 
Across the glimm'ring waste of dreams ; 
When now the shadows eastward fall, 
And twilight hears the curlew's call ; 
When blighted now the lily shows, 
And no more bloom is on the rose ; 
What phantom of the dying day 
Shall gild the wanderer's sombre way — 
What new illusion of delight — 
What magic, ushering in the night "? 
For, deep beneath the proudest will 
The heart must have its solace stiU. 



m 

Ah, many a hope too sweet to last 
Is in that garden of the Past, 
And many a flower that once was fair 
Lies cold and dead and wither'd there ; 
Youth's promise, trusted Friendship's bliss. 
Fame's laurel, Love's enraptured kiss. 
Beauty and strength — the spirit's wings — 
And the glad sense of natural things, 
And times that smile, and times that weep - 
AU shrouded in the cells of sleep j 
While o'er them careless zephyrs pass. 
And sunbeams, in the rustling grass. 



WILLIAM WINTER 225 



IV 

So ends it all : but never yet 
Could the true heart of love forget, 
And grander sway was never known 
Than his who reigns on Memory's throne ! 
Though grim the threat and dark the frown 
With which the pall of night comes down, 
Though all the scene be drear and wild, 
Life once was precious, once it smiled, 
And in his dream he lives again 
With ev'ry joy that crowned it then. 
And no remorse of time can dim 
The splendor of the Past for him ! 



The sea that round his childhood played 

Still makes the music once it made, 

And still in Fancy's chambers sing 

The breezes of eternal Spring j 

While, thronging Youth's resplendent track, 

The princes and the queens come back, 

And everywhere the dreary mould 

Breaks into Nature's green and gold ! 

It is not night — or, if it be, 

So let the night descend for me, 

When Mem'ry's radiant dream shall cease, 

Slow lapsing into perfect peace. 



15 



ANTHONY HOPE HAWKINS 

(ANTHONY HOPE) 
AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, OCTOBER 23, 1897 

I AM too well aware of the history of your club and 
of the distinction of the guests whom you have 
entertained before not to rise on this occasion with 
perhaps more than the usual— shall I say trepidation or 
discomfort?— which possesses an after-dinner speaker. 
I have received here to-night an appreciation which 
would be wholly delightful if I were not persistently 
haunted with the idea that it is too excessively in- 
dulgent. 

As I crossed the Atlantic Ocean, feeling less at ease 
than I usually do on land, an intelligent sailor came 
up to me and told me that we were in the Gulf Stream. 
The consolation was slight, because the Gulf Stream 
seemed to me as turbulent as any other part of the 
ocean. But it has occurred to me since that he spoke, 
as it were, in a metaphor, and that what he really 
referred to was the gulf stream that flows between 
here and England; the gulf stream of sympathy 
which unites the two countries, and which, unlike the 
merely physical and uncomfortable stream, flows both 
ways— from us to you, and from you to us. It is, in- 
deed, in a way, strange for an Englishman to make his 
first visit to this country. I was asked by a cynical 

226 



ANTHONY HOPE HAWKINS 227 

friend, before I started, why I was going, and he re- 
ferred not obscurely to the hopes I entertained of pay- 
ing my expenses. 

The ancient epigram forbids us to say that it is 
necessary to live; but I am still among those who con- 
sider that it is desirable. I agree with the clergyman 
in my own country who said that the Scriptures teach 
that the laborer is worthy of his hire, but that, for his 
part, he thought it ought to be paid free of income tax. 

But that was not the sort, not exclusively the sort, 
of American gold which was in my mind ; and if it had 
been when I started, I should before now have found 
out my mistake. Better than that is the gold of your 
cordial reception, of your unstinted hospitality, of 
your appreciation, which still sits on my heart as too 
much undeserved. 

But to come here is indeed, in the old phrase, the 
experience of a lifetime. It has been my fate— I don't 
know whether you will be surprised about it— to be 
asked quite three or four times already what were my 
impressions of America. When in quarantine I was 
asked first, and my only impression then was that I 
should never get here. I was asked again at the land- 
ing, when my sole feeling was that I was very glad 
to get here. 

The question I have not yet answered. It is diffi- 
cult to answer. One comes to a country that is unfa- 
miliar, and yet not strange ; that is new, and yet recalls 
every moment the things that are old ; that is familiar, 
and yet is distinct with a separate, individual, and 
proud nationality. 

And as with your nationality, so, if I may say so. 



228 :SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

it seems to me with your literature. It has its roots 
where our literature has; but new and patriotic as I 
am, I must admit that a brighter sun has shone upon 
it, copious rain has nourished it, it has its own fruit 
and its own flavor, and thus it enhances and glorifies 
the English language, in which both itself and our 
literature, on the other side of the Atlantic, are ex- 
pressed. 

It is far from my desire to speak to you long to- 
night, but it is impossible for me to sit down without 
at least trying to say to you how very deeply I feel 
the generosity and the kindness of this greeting, and 
to say also how I have felt for years back the kindness 
and the readiness with which the public of America 
greets us English writers. 



W. BOURKE COCKRAN 

AT THE DINNER TO ANTHONY HOPE HAWKINS 
(ANTHONY HOPE), OCTOBER 23, 1897 

I AM profoundly grateful to the Lotos Club for giv- 
ing me an opportunity to participate in its wel- 
come to the guest of the evening. Among the many 
obligations which I owe to the late Charles A. Dana 
I count one of the chief my introduction to Mr. An- 
thony Hope, through the medium of the "Prisoner of 
Zenda." Since that happy hour I have devoured 
every product of his pen with eager avidity— but with 
an appetite whetted, not sated. That introduction 
opened to me a field of such pure delight that, highly 
as I value a personal acquaintance to which I have 
been since admitted, I cannot help identifying him still 
by the name under which he first captured my admira- 
tion and earned my gratitude. I hope, therefore, that 
he will forgive me if I refer to him now by the name 
which his genius has made illustrious, rather than by 
that which has been made respectable by the virtues of 
his ancestors. 

As Mr. Hope's works have been a source of uni- 
versal delight, I am glad, Mr. Chairman, that you have 
not assigned to any of us a particular toast this even- 
ing. Indeed, there is but one to which any of us 
could speak. Whatever oratorical purposes we might 
15* 229 



230 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

have formed, in rising to our feet one sentiment would 
inevitably dominate all others. However the speeches 
might differ in verbal expression, the burden of each 
would be a wish for still wider success in the field of 
literature to Anthony Hope. And in wishing him a 
wider success we are wishing a wider sphere of intel- 
lectual enjoyment to each one of us. "We are doing 
more. We are wishing a distinct advance to English 
literature. Standing, as he does, in the forefront of 
literary excellence, to wish him wider success is to 
wish that the standard of literary perfection be lifted 
higher, and that literary ambition be advanced to 
nobler aims. 

It is no disparagement of other writers to say that 
since the hand of Dickens fell helpless by his side no 
one has wielded a pen of such power as Anthony 
Hope. Many authors are producing works which 
charm us by varied forms of merit, but none of them 
has imparted to pages of equal pathos a sentiment so 
lofty, a wit so keen, a humor so subtle, a literary style 
so simple and so elegant. Since Dr. Johnson wrote 
the lives of the poets literary discussions nearly always 
lead to a comparison between the works of different 
authors. I am not sure whether this is a fixed rule 
of criticism, or an unconscious but irresistible ten- 
dency of the critical mind: whatever it be matters 
little, for Hope's work is so distinctively original that 
there is no other with which it can be compared. I 
have, indeed, heard it said that his position in the lit- 
erature of this period resembles the place which Charles 
Dickens occupied in the literature of another genera- 
tion. But if there be a resemblance between Dickens 



W. Bourke Cockran 



W. BOURKE COCKRAN 231 

and Hope it is limited to their popularity; it does not 
and cannot extend to tlie style or quality of their 
works. 

If we compare the works of Hope and those of Dick- 
ens or any other author we will not find points of 
resemblance, but points of contrast between them. 
Dickens's plots were always simple, his sentiment was 
sometimes exaggerated. Hope's sentiment is always 
natural; his plots are sometimes fantastic and perhaps 
extravagant, but their daring originality is the crown- 
ing triumph of his genius. Thackeray achieved and still 
maintains his unquestioned primacy solely through a 
brilliancy of style which holds the interest enthralled 
through several volumes, although the incidents de- 
scribed in them are so slight that they scarcely deserve 
the name of a plot. Hope, on the other hand, capti- 
vates our interest and our admiration, while he recon- 
ciles us to plots daring almost to extravagance by 
minute attention to detail and remarkable skill in 
composition. But Hope differs preeminently from 
both Dickens and Thackeray in one quality, peculiar to 
all his work, which we who have met him to-night can 
fully appreciate, and that is a singular modesty which 
completely effaces the author. 

Dickens, whatever may be thought of his style or his 
sentiment, was unquestionably triumphant in produc- 
ing characters so eccentric, so striking, yet so natural, 
that they have come to be regarded as personal ac- 
quaintances by millions of human beings, but Dick- 
ens's work is marred by digressions which in no way 
aid his narrative, but leave us under the impression 
that he was seeking to show how well he could 



232 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

write. Thackeray had this habit even in more marked 
degree, although with him it was a charm, not a blem- 
ish, so perfectly did he succeed in giving his reader 
the impression that if he paused to talk with him it 
was because he liked him. Hope's work does not con- 
tain a superfluous sentence or one which anybody could 
suspect of having been inserted merely for the purpose 
of ornamentation. Not once is there an attempt at dis- 
play, even by that trick, so common to authors, of un- 
dertaking to describe natural scenery or to amplify 
by moral reflections the movements of characters. 
Every word contributes to the progress of the narra- 
tive, and it is always the best word for that purpose. 
Never for a single instant is the personality of the 
writer obtruded upon the attention of the reader. 

To measure the praise which one writer deserves it 
is not necessary to belittle other authors. Dickens and 
Thackeray each occupies a field and dominates it, to 
the exclusion of all rivals. Anthony Hope, with a style 
different from both, has a charm which is peculiarly 
his own. In one respect his art is carried to a perfec- 
tion that neither of them ever reached. No writer of 
the century has been able so completely to capture our 
judgments and bind them to the chariot wheels of his 
imagination as it speeds through the wildest realms of 
fancy. Even Swift, bending our senses to the empire 
of his genius, forcing us by veri-similitude of detail 
to accept as inhabitants of this terrestrial globe the 
Lilliputians and the Brobdingnagians, the philosophers 
of Laputa and the equine moralists of the Houyhnhnms, 
was not more triumphant than Anthony Hope in build- 
ing a twelfth-century romance among the social and 



W. BOURKE COCKRAN 233 

material conditions of the nineteenth century without 
once offending our sense of proportion. 

The ''Prisoner of Zenda" moves among incidents as 
stirring as those which attended Ivanhoe's return to 
England, but one work is built purely on imagination, 
while the other rests on a solid foundation of his- 
tory. Scott's narrative is aided by customs, habits of 
thought, means of locomotion, and weapons of warfare 
peculiar to a period when every man's safety, progress, 
and success depended almost entirely upon his own 
prowess and qualities. Hope succeeds in carrying his 
hero through scenes as thrilling and exciting, display- 
ing even in more marked degree the results of indi- 
vidual strength and the resources of individual cour- 
age, within sight of the railway train, the telegraph, 
and other appliances of modern civilization which, 
while they extend enormously the power of men in 
cooperation, narrow decisively the field of individual 
adventure. When fleetness of foot or excellence in 
horsemanship could carry a man to safety from all 
pursuit of private vengeance or public justice, when 
skill and the sword enabled one man to hold numbers at 
bay, it was easy for imaginative writers to endow an 
individual with qualities which made him capable of 
withstanding the hostility of a monarch or the fury of 
a multitude. But in an age when no fleetness of horse 
or human feet can outspeed a telegraphic message, 
when the personal strength of a giant counts as noth- 
ing against a platoon of police that could be called to 
subdue him in an instant by telephone, the field of the 
author is sensibly narrowed. The materials at his 
command are no longer the unusual conditions pro- 



234 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

duced through possession by some men of unusual 
qualities. He must now hold our interest by skill in 
arranging and dealing with commonplace events to 
which many men contribute. Here I think is where 
Anthony Hope has shown a power without parallel in 
literature. Other modern writers, it is true, have suc- 
ceeded in lending an air of plausibility to impossible 
narratives, but only by dealing with materials beyond 
the comprehension of the average reader. Edmund 
About tells of the man with the broken ear and of the 
mishaps which befell the notary's nose without shock- 
ing our natural perceptions; but these stories are laid 
in the field of scientific discovery where few can follow 
him, and where, therefore, his statements of fact are 
free from challenge. Hope never deals with events 
beyond the comprehension of the simplest, yet he holds 
our interest and compels our acquiescence in wildly 
improbable incidents by the pure force of his genius. 

But it is not alone in reconciling the judgment of 
the sober to fantastic conceptions that Mr. Hope ex- 
cels. He performs a far nobler part in literature and 
renders a far better service to humanity. No writer 
who has ever contributed works of fiction to the world 
has wielded a purer pen. No man has ever treated 
love with more delicacy, or woman with more rev- 
erence. 

No one mil dispute this statement who has read the 
two last chapters of the "Prisoner of Zenda" and real- 
ized that noble conception of passion purified by duty, 
of love ennobled by loyalty. What can surpass in 
power and pathos, in tenderness and lofty senti- 
ment that parting scene between Rassendyll and 



W. BOURKE COCKRAN 235 

Flavia, when the woman stoops for one moment to 
kiss with tenderest emotion the lover at her feet, 
but in another minute the queen dismisses for all time 
the man whose love might not be accepted without 
treason to her duty. And the exquisite poetry of their 
subsequent intercourse! What could be more poetic 
than their fidelity to a tie holier than any tainted with 
earthly passion, expressed by an exchange of roses every 
year? Such a love, refined in sorrow and self-renun- 
ciation, suggests the spiritual rather than the material 
life— approaching the earth, if at all, only to dip its 
wings in the stream of memory, repelling any sugges- 
tion of a possibility that it could ever descend to the 
muddy depths of licentious indulgence. 

The literary works which we admire are the stan- 
dard of our own morals and our own tastes. The 
author whom we crown with praise embodies our lit- 
erary judgment and the standard of our own civiliza- 
tion. No man could read any of the works which our 
guest has contributed to the civilization of the world 
without feeling that here was an author who could be 
witty without being gross; who could display abun- 
dant humor without the slightest violation of decency. 
I have often wondered why it is that virtue is gener- 
ally left to the defense of the serious, the sober, and 
even the dull, while vice seems always able to enlist in 
its service the subtle, dangerous, and effective weapon 
of wit. Surely vice painted, bedizened, and prepos- 
terous should furnish a better field for the shafts of 
satire and ridicule than virtue, lofty, sincere, and essen- 
tially natural! I venture to say that the warmth of 
this welcome to Anthony Hope is largely due to our 



236 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

belief that in him the simpler virtues have found a 
champion who can wield in their defense a blade as 
keen as any that has ever been prostituted to the ser- 
vice of vice— a genius who can describe every phase 
of human life without exalting the basest, who can 
awaken interest and hold it without any sacrifice of 
cleanliness. 

At the risk of being thought tedious, I must mention 
a striking instance of this power to describe graphic- 
ally the operation of the passions without the slightest 
suggestion of grossness. Do you remember the rescue 
of the Princess Osra by that militant bishop who, how- 
ever he may have handled the crozier, wielded the 
sword with tremendous efficiency; and do you remem- 
ber how comprehensively and how skilfully the tempta- 
tion which assailed him as he bore her in his arms to 
safety was suggested rather than told by a brief ref- 
erence to the additional penance imposed on him at his 
next confession. I know of no description in litera- 
ture so graphic and so complete, yet so exquisitely 
delicate. 

Mr. Chairman, as we read these works, these contri- 
butions to the literature of our age, the question often 
arises, ''What place in the civilization of the world 
does the novelist hold?" Is a work of fiction to be 
treated as the mere pastime of an idle hour— to be 
read, as our friend declared, while a train bumps over 
the anvil rails of an American railway, to be discarded 
when the engine rolls into the station. Oh, no, Mr. 
Chairman, the creations of the author are important 
features of our whole lives. Which of us is not richer 
and better for knowing Colonel Newcome and Henry 



W. BOURKE COCKRAN 237 

Esmond? How many living acquaintances have given 
us the same pleasure as Pendennis, or Mr. Pickwick; 
afforded us as much merriment as Captain Costigan or 
Sam Weller; awakened as much sympathy as Little 
Nell or Nancy Sykes; aroused as much admiration as 
Rassendyll or Flavia; provoked as much interest as 
Father Stafford, with his perplexities, or that ''Man 
of Mark" whom we can't help liking in spite of his 
very questionable morals, or that workman who as 
prime minister of a British colony failed to realize his 
hopes of improving the social conditions of his fellows, 
but who became ' ' Half a Hero ' ' through his very fail- 
ure? Who would not sacrifice most of his material 
positions rather than have these creations of the nov- 
elist blotted from his memory? 

Mr. Chairman, it is a mistake to suppose that the 
ideal is less durable than the material. Indeed, I be- 
lieve there is nothing permanent in the world except 
the ideal. Palaces, with their occupants, be they kings, 
princes, or lackeys, all crumble to dust; fortresses fall 
before the remorseless strokes of time; laws and their 
administrators pass away ; even creeds and altars totter 
to decay, but ideals live forever. He who pens a true 
and lofty sentiment liberates a force which will operate 
in the minds of men long ages hence, when the author 
himself may have been forgotten and every monument 
of his generation may have perished. 

This welcome extended to Anthony Hope is a tribute 
of gratitude from men whom he has served and en- 
riched. We rejoice at this opportunity to examine this 
lamp which has shed a generous light over our path- 
way, to approach this fountain which has thrown many 



238 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

refreshing streams over the dry fields of our daily ex- 
istence. As we grasp the hand of the author who has 
contributed so much to the joy of our lives, and as 
we touch glasses with him we cherish high hopes that 
during many additional years of fruitful labor he will 
win wider glory by the production of new works which 
will still further extend and ennoble the intellectual 
wealth of mankind. 



JOHN S. WISE 

AT THE DINNER TO ANTHONY HOPE HAWKINS 
(ANTHONY HOPE), OCTOBER 23, 1897 

I THINK I cannot add to what has been said concern- 
ing Mr. Hope, but I will give him a little foresight 
of what he may expect in his travels in America. I 
am sure that he will find all through this country that 
he is no stranger. In my visits to England the thing 
that impressed me most was how much I felt at home. 
Standing in the shadow of Nelson's monument, in the 
mists which often surround it, and looking at his splen- 
did figure on the summit and the sleeping lions about 
its base, or standing in Westminster Abbey amid the 
tombs of England's great men or in St. Paul's, it is 
utterly impossible for a man of English extraction to 
feel that he is anywhere but in the home of his fathers. 
I hope and believe an Englishman visiting America 
feels more or less the same way. It is more or less a 
surprise to him, no doubt, because he does not realize, 
until he comes here, how well preserved have been 
many of the traditions of England, or the feelings of 
Americans toward the people from whom they sprung. 
Among the people I have met there I have been much 
struck with the fact that, in spite of what we read in 
the newspapers about antagonisms, the average Eng- 
lishman regards the American as a brother, or at least 

239 



240 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

as a cousin. It is true that now and then we meet a 
gentleman who is not so friendly. I recollect that once 
I took a train at Taunton, and a passenger read aloud 
an extract from a newspaper saying that we had had a 
severe storm in New York, adding: "This is a very 
nawsty day! I presume that this is the same storm 
that they have had in New York." "I presume so," 
replied his companion, a red-faced old English gentle- 
man. "Everything nawsty comes from America." 

Now, my experience is that they really do not think 
so badly of us, after all. When they come over here 
they see a great deal more that they approve than they 
expected to before they came. Among my earliest rec- 
ollections of Englishmen I recall those of one of the 
most remarkable of her literary men. It was Thack- 
eray. I was a very small boy, and I had never in all 
my life seen a man who was so red and full, apparently, 
of food and drink, or who "sweated his spectacles" 
like William Makepeace Thackeray. No doubt the 
American small boy was equally a revelation to him. 
I did not hesitate to inquire about all of his characters, 
and how he had learned so much about the Virginians, 
never having been there before. 

It has been a pleasure to welcome our friend from 
across the ocean. There is no other nation of our 
magnitude to which Britons can come and feel that 
they are still within the atmosphere of their own homes. 
Yet my friend is only at the beginning of his task. 
His companion and manager told me to-night that he 
contemplated visiting old Virginia. I am glad to hear 
it. He will find there a people more like his own than 
any others on this continent— a people who have re- 
tained the traditions of old England, the names, the 



JOHN S. WISE 241 

characteristics, and are less mixed with foreign blood 
than anywhere else in America. They will be inter- 
ested in him also. They are a reading people. They 
are a people who do not intend to let him come among 
them as a stranger, because he is no stranger. 

He will go westward, and still be interested in what 
he finds. He must, however, bear in mind the experi- 
ence of Lord Coleridge when he was here some years 
ago. Our people are extremely hospitable, even at the 
risk of bad consequences. Coleridge was given a din- 
ner which was levied on by the sheriff for a debt of 
the host after the guests were assembled, and could 
not be eaten until the invited guests paid for the meal. 
And he must also bear in mind that he will meet peo- 
ple here who are a little confused in their knowledge 
of historical facts. A girl rushed up to Lord Cole- 
ridge and, grasping him by the hand, said how pleased 
she was to meet the author of ' ' The Ancient Mariner ' ' ! 
Don't be surprised, therefore, if some one slaps you 
on the back and tells you of his or her delight at 
being able to look into the face of the man who bade 
the world farewell when Kosciusko fell, or mistakes 
you for the gentleman who aided Drake and Frobisher 
in destroying the Spanish Armada. Some of our people 
do not keep tab on the centuries, or correctly place the 
Hopes and the Hawkinses who have lived in England. 

Yet all of these things will furnish the material for 
new literary ventures, for surprising literary situa- 
tions, not less wonderful than those imaginary situ- 
ations which have already made you famous. It is 
easier for a man to be a literary character in America 
than in England, because we have truths here which 
are stranger than your fictions. 

16 



ELIHU EOOT 

AT THE DINNER TO ANTHONY HOPE HAWKINS 
(ANTHONY HOPE), OCTOBER 23, 1897 

IT is always delightful to share in your hospitality, 
always an honor to take part in the well-timed and 
well-chosen compliments which you pay to the men who 
are worthy of consideration and regard. And it is 
especially so now, when one comes from the turmoil 
and all-absorbing interests of a political controversy 
into an island where it is always afternoon, and where, 
but for the ever-present enthusiasm of our young 
friend who makes up for being an after-dinner speaker 
at political meetings by being a political speaker after 
dinner, we should all be able to pass from low realities 
to high ideals, to turn from King George to devotion 
to Prince Rudolph, and to stay behind to take part 
with the singers of hymns of praise. Nevertheless, sir, 
I feel now, rising to my feet without the opportunity 
for elaborate preparation which is sometimes apparent 
in after-dinner speaking— 

Mr. Depew : Cockran, he means you. 

Mr. Cockran : I should n 't be surprised. 

Mr. Root— I feel much as did a friend of mine who 
was at dinner with you one evening. Making his way 
homeward with some difficulty, he came in contact with 
a tree— the only tree in the street. He fell backward 

242 



ELIHU ROOT 243 

a step, then returned to the effort, and met the tree 
again. This time he sat upon the sidewalk, put both 
hands to his head, and cried: "Lost! lost! lost in an 
impenetrable forest!" 

How, sir, after all that has been said so eloquently 
and so well, with such wdt and humor, such pathos 
and such point, such delightful discrimination and just 
judgment, shall I find a single word to add to the ap- 
preciation which our guest may take away of the feel- 
ing of the American people toward him? But one 
thing I may say, and that is a thing which no fre- 
quency of repetition can make stale or old. I can say 
to him that we are grateful and appreciative; that 
though his face is strange to us, except as we have seen 
it upon the pictured page, though his direct personality 
is among us for the first time, we have very affectionate 
relations with his family. We love the men whom he 
has brought into the world, whom he has cherished 
and sent out— men who, springing from the brain of 
this generation, are worthy to stand by the side of our 
own masters and men of genius. We have a warm 
feeling toward him because he has brought to us these 
creatures of imagination and impressed upon our 
minds and hearts every feature of every character, not 
by talking to us about them, but by letting us live with 
them in their lives. We had grown tired of the books 
which developed character by letting us see it devel- 
oped in the act. 

I do not know that I can give any better idea of what 
seems to me the goal that every writer might well wish 
to attain more than any other than to say that every 
man has but few friends, whether among men or among 



244 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

books. It is not within the capacity of human nature 
to love many men. We have many acquaintances, 
many friends, but whether it be among the millions of 
the city or in the hamlet, there are but few real friends. 
So it is with books. Each man has but a few books 
which he really loves, but few to which he turns at 
night when the house is still, when the workaday world 
is behind him, and a night of leisure, with its possibili- 
ties of enjoyment by the fireside, is before him; when, 
with the lamp at his shoulder and the fire burning on 
the hearth, he turns to the old friends that soothe his 
soul, that uplift his spirit, that smooth out the lines of 
his face, that bring back to him the sweetest and the 
noblest times of life, the sweetest and noblest aspira- 
tions of his youth. There are but a few friends that 
come to a man then, and they are the few volumes he 
takes down from his shelf and greets with the warmth 
of friendship. 

Mr. Hope has entered into that charmed circle, has 
found a place more firm, more certain, and more en- 
during in that circle of the heart among more Ameri- 
cans than any man who has ever written during your 
lifetime and mine. And when he moves among us in 
the street, at the banquet-table, or looks down upon his 
audiences from the desk, his heart will warm toward 
America because he may know that he sees about him 
a multitude of faces of those to whom he comes when 
the great and busy world has passed away, and when 
the noblest sentiments and the tenderest feelings bring 
men back to their youth again. 



Charles H, Van Brunt 



CHAELES H. VAN BRUNT 

AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, DECEMBER 4, 1897 

(Upon Ms re-election as a Justice of the Supreme Court.) 

THE hospitable and instructive spirit of this club 
is so great that the members cannot allow a single 
opportunity to pass without availing themselves of it 
for the purpose of exercising what they consider to be 
their peculiar vocation. And so when my learned 
friend Mr. Justice O'Brien was elevated to the Su- 
preme Court he was entertained at dinner here, and 
he was informed what was expected of him in his new 
position. And how he profited by the advice which he 
received upon that occasion is evidenced by the admir- 
able manner in which he has filled the position which 
he now occupies. And I hope that four years hence the 
club will think it their duty to their fellow-member 
further to instruct him as to the manner in which he 
should conduct himself during his new term, which he 
will then be about to commence. 

I feel the more assured that the club will not allow 
that opportunity to pass by unimproved because I am 
here this evening. I have come here in an humble, re- 
ceptive spirit, having determined to avail myself of all 
the good things that might be set before me, whether 
in the shape of food, drink, or advice; and I expect 
before I leave to be thoroughly informed as to how I 

16* 245 



246 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

should improve in my judicial conduct. I leave Bro- 
ther Carter here to solve the problem which has always 
troubled the judiciary, and that is how to decide the 
controversies which may come before them in favor of 
one party without disgusting the other. 

The words of your president, which have been en- 
tirely too enthusiastic in view of the subject upon 
which they treated, have made me believe that even a 
judicial career does not pass unobserved in our vast 
and busy community. And I feel, and shall feel, 
greatly encouraged by the memories of this evening, 
and will endeavor to make my record during the new 
term which is about to commence better than that which 
has been made during the term about to end. 



JOSEPH H. CHOATE 

AT THE DINNER TO PRESIDING JUSTICE VAN 
BRUNT, DECEMBER 4, 1897 

IEEALLY do not know how much flattery Judge 
Van Brunt can swallow. If indeed it could be 
reduced to liquid form, he himself would not permit 
me to prescribe the limit which he could imbibe. But 
when it is hurled at his head in such solid masses, I 
think that even his stalwart frame might well shrink 
from any further shower of the same kind. 

And so it has occurred to me that I might take a 
different tack, and point out possibly some points of 
view in which this universal shower of praise might 
meet its proper qualifications. Therefore, under the 
protection of the hospitable roof of the Lotos Club, I 
frankly confess that I have always been afraid of 
Judge Van Brunt. And I really believe that that is 
a sentiment in which you, Mr. President, and all my 
brethren of the bar, from the youngest to the oldest, 
would readily concur. I find, too, that the holy awe in 
which he is held is shared by his associates in the Ap- 
pellate Division; and I loiow that it is the common 
sentiment of that countless horde of judges of the Su- 
preme Court who reign at the old court-house. Judge 
Gray has shown us that even the Court of Appeals is 
afraid of him too; they are afraid to tamper with 
his law. 

247 



248 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

Now let me tell you some of the points of view in 
which I have been afraid of him. Until to-night I 
have been afraid of his absolute command and know- 
ledge of the law ; but it has been reserved for the Lotos 
Club to relieve us forevermore of fear on that ground. 
This club has happily bound up and distributed for 
us the combined fruit and result of his life's work. 
[Holding up one of the souvenirs of the dinner, a hol- 
low, book-shaped case marked **Yan Brunt's Deci- 
sions," the speaker continued:] I hold in my hand, 
as does each of you, Van Brunt's decisions— all of 
them; the sum and substance of all that he has ever 
known or done. And when I open it, why, it occurs 
to me that I know all there is there myself. The 
merest tyro at the law knows as much as is bound up 
in this volume. It was a great philosopher who said: 
*'One thing I know— that I know nothing." And al- 
ways, after that was made clear, he passed for one of 
the brightest and wisest of mankind. 

Then I have always been afraid of his austere coun- 
tenance. Often as I have risen, with trembling knees, 
to speak before him, I have wished that something 
might mitigate the austerity of that face. And yet I 
have felt, you have felt, all have felt, I think, that he 
possesses one quality that has not been referred to 
here to-night— a warm and sympathetic and tender 
heart. He is not half so severe as he looks. If I 
might borrow and alter a stanza of one of the match- 
less verses of William Cowper, I would say, and I think 
that you would all agree with me : 

" He hides a smiling Providence 
Behind a frowning face." 



JOSEPH H. CHOATE 249 

Then another thing I have been very much afraid 
of ever since, as a mere stripling, I first rose to address 
him in the first term at which he sat in the Court of 
Common Pleas, and that is his keen insight. It always 
seemed to me that when his eye was fixed upon me he 
saw right through me ; and as I sometimes have in my 
arsenal when I go to court a good deal that I would 
like to conceal or disguise, I have always felt that all 
my disguises were stripped off in his commanding 
presence. 

And then I have been afraid of another thing— his 
extreme fairness and sense of justice. It is, half the 
time, one of the functions of our profession— Brother 
Carter knows it and practises it as well as myself— to 
mislead the court if we can. Well, now, in an experi- 
ence of twenty-seven years before Judge Van Brunt, 
I never have succeeded in misleading him once. 

Gentlemen, if we want thoroughly to realize how 
much we value Judge Yan Brunt, we must only imagine 
what our feelings would be if, upon political exigen- 
cies that may arise about the first of January, he should 
he taken from us. It is true that by almost the unani- 
mous voice of his fellow-citizens he has been reelected 
a justice of the Supreme Court. He has not been 
elected presiding justice of the Appellate Division of 
the First Department. Suppose that, in the wisdom of 
the governor, in the peculiar shuffle system of that 
great game of judicial cards which he has to play 
every little while, these presiding justices of the Ap- 
pellate Division should be reassigned? I have often 
thought how we should feel if the governor, in his wis- 
dom, on the first of January should announce that 



250 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

Judge Van Brunt had been assigned to hold court in 
the Appellate Division among the wolves and bears of 
Chautauqua County, or somewhere up there. I have 
often thought how it might affect us in the city of 
New York, and also what they would think of it up 
there. Eeally it would be a new experience for any 
of the rural brethren; and if he should take his seat 
in one of those numerical departments beyond the 
first, I really believe that the stampede of people in 
the country toward the city would be intensified ten- 
fold. 

Well, your chairman has very kindly referred to the 
Constitutional Convention, in which I had some part, 
which created these Appellate Divisions. Now, I am 
free to say that one of the fond dreams— perhaps it 
was only a dream— that the convention had was that 
if we could create in each of these departments an 
appellate court that was almost as good, if not quite 
as good, as the Court of Appeals, suitors would be sat- 
isfied and go no further. It has not yet been realized, 
and for this reason : up to this point the Court of Ap- 
peals has had but little to do with the decisions of the 
Appellate Division of the First Department. But that 
my dream will yet prove true I think is largely indi- 
cated by this fact, and I think Judge Gray will bear me 
out when I say that, having only just now, in the regu- 
lar course of his calendar, reached the review of the 
decisions of the Appellate Division of the First Depart- 
ment, out of some sixteen appeals that they have heard, 
fifteen have received the affirmance of the Court of 
Appeals. 

Another thing I have been afraid of when I have ap- 



JOSEPH H. CHOATE 251 

peared before Judge Van Brunt is the calm intensity 
and severity with which, against all alike, he enforces 
the rules. It sometimes appears to me to be almost 
impossible for me, and always impossible for my bro- 
ther Carter, to say what we have to say in an hour. 
Times have changed in the forty years since Judge Van 
Brunt, over the way on the south side of Wall street, 
was a clerk in Judge Leonard's office, and I was a 
clerk with Butler, Evarts, and Southmayd. I had pre- 
viously gone through a clerkship in the office of my 
brother Carter. I sat beneath his wings, and I fol- 
lowed his footsteps as closely as I could, and was de- 
termined to keep as near the heels of that leader of 
the bar as possible. I went to hear him discourse in 
the courts, and to hear such men as George Wood and 
Daniel Lord and Francis B. Cutting entertain the 
courts before which they appeared for a whole day to- 
gether. Now we are all tied down on this bed of Pro- 
crustes and limited to an hour; and I must say that 
I believe justice is better administered by bringing the 
lawyers and the parties right to the point, and, if they 
have anything to say, requiring them to say it, and 
when they have said it to stop and assist the adminis- 
tration of justice, the rules with respect to which Judge 
Van Brunt so well understands and so forcibly ad- 
ministers. 

Now, gentlemen, I do not like to say anything in 
praise of a man to his face. What can I add to what 
has already been said? My brother Carter has asked 
him how he bears the responsibility of deciding a case 
in favor of one party without disgusting the other. 
Well, he has never disgusted me, because I follow the 



252 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

theory, in the practice of the law, that I have no re- 
sponsibility for the decision of the court. "What does 
it matter to me whether I win or lose a case, provided 
I win or lose it rightly? It is the calamity, if it is 
anybody's calamity, of the client for having so poor 
a case or the jury for being so stupid or the Appellate 
Division for having so slight an appreciation of those 
overwhelming reasons that I am in the habit of pre- 
senting. 

Well, gentlemen, I hope he may live through the 
years of service for which he has been elected, and 
then return to practice at the bar and join the rest of 
us, who will be ready warmly to greet him. 

There is a sentiment which I know he will join with 
me in proposing, and which before I sit down I should 
like to offer on the part of so many of the profession 
in this city and State as are here to-night. The State 
of New York, the judiciary of New York, the bar of 
the State are about to suffer a grievous and irreparable 
loss. After twenty-seven years of public service, cov- 
ering the whole period of the existence of the present 
Court of Appeals, its present chief judge, Charles An- 
drews, is to retire under the age limit imposed by the 
edict of the Constitution. I believe he has held out 
an example to every lawyer in the State of New York. 
He will carry into his retirement the affection and the 
esteem of all of us ; and I should like— I wish he were 
here himself to receive the tribute— to offer as a sen- 
timent, the health of Charles Andrews, Chief Judge of 
the Court of Appeals. 





Morgan J. O^Brien 



'v^^VvS'O .\» it»\).toM 




^t!/!^,i.t-t^t />"«?.? -zft^ J9/^.-^,^i4^->^ 



MORGIAN J. O'BRIEN 

AT THE DINNER TO PRESIDING JUSTICE VAN 
BRUNT, DECEMBER 4, 1897 

I HAVE been a member here sufficiently long to 
realize the responsibility that is cast upon any gen- 
tleman who is called upon to respond to any sentiment 
that is proposed at this board, and I feel a good deal 
like the boy who unexpectedly fell into a cold stream. 
He concluded that the very best thing he could do was 
to swim for the shore. 

Some allusion has been made here to-night to the 
public career of Judge Van Brunt. Fortunate is that 
man who has lived to see his reputation as a judge and 
his position on the bench commemorated by deserved 
and appropriate honors, by a tribute which is the 
greatest any judge can expect— to be nominated and 
elected by all political parties and factions. 

But there are one or two things about this dinner 
which may seem to Judge Patterson and myself most 
agreeable and a little personal. You will notice that 
this great tribute came to him after he had served 
twenty-seven years. We are all willing to serve twen- 
ty-seven years, and take the chances of getting that 
indorsement, but it seems to me that it would be the 
proper thing for the gentlemen who are here to so 
shape public affairs that judges who endeavor honestly 

253 



254 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

and faithfully to perform their duties shall be retained 
in office twenty-seven years, and then invited to the 
Lotos Club to receive, as they deserve, praise or con- 
demnation. 

Now, I can add nothing, except in one slight respect, 
to what has been so well said concerning Judge Van 
Brunt. As presiding justice of the court it is un- 
necessary for me to tell you of the close and intimate 
personal relations into which every member of the 
court is brought with him. We are situated as are 
members of a family. Ours is a judicial family, and 
you cannot realize, unless you get that family idea in 
your minds, how important is the personnel of those 
with whom you associate. There is not a man in the 
court who is not wishing and longing to see Judge Yan 
Brunt designated again as the presiding justice, and 
there is not one who would willingly occupy his place. 
Therefore as one of his associates, I desire to say that 
by the same fairness, by that same candor, and that 
same frankness which have endeared him to the bar, he 
has won the respect and affection of every one of his 
associates. 



FEANK E. LAWEENCE 

AT THE DINNER TO LORD HERSCHELL, NOVEMBER 5, 1898 
(In introducing the guest of the evening.) 

AS we assemble at the beginning of another season it 
jljL is my privilege to greet you once more. When 
last we sat about these tables none of us could have 
imagined the events which the next few months were 
to bring forth. Our country had for many years been 
at peace with all the world. "War came suddenly and 
with little warning, and the sensations it brought were 
new to the present generation. Happily, it has been 
short, and we hope that its shadow has passed from 
us for many long years to come. 

History has been made very rapidly this year. But 
yesterday we had no thought of expansion, of aggran- 
dizement, of foreign conquest. To-day we have taken 
into our dominion fertile possessions that are near at 
home, and are wondering whether and how we can 
assimilate into our political system millions of human 
beings of unknown races at the Antipodes. 

The events of the year must give to every American 
a feeling of pride and of happiness as we reflect how 
soon the problems of the war were met and mastered, 
and when we recall the valiant deeds of our soldiers 
and sailors upon land and sea. 

But there is no more happy recollection in connec- 

255 



256 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

tion with our recent history, and none, I hope, which 
will longer endure, than that of the friendship which 
at a critical time was shown by the great mother nation 
toward us, whom Kipling has called the "Youngest 
People." May that friendship always be reciprocal, 
and may it be accepted by mankind as an evidence 
that though the ocean separates, it does not divide the 
two great branches of the English-speaking race ; that 
they are one in purpose and aspiration, and that when- 
ever the bonds of human freedom are to be enlarged or 
the wrongs of an oppressed nation are to be righted 
England and America will stand as one. 

But it seems that there are questions— differences, if 
you please— between the two countries, and those ques- 
tions are of great and far-reaching importance, too. 
Yet many of us know of them only in a very imperfect 
way. But for to-night let us rejoice and be glad that 
there are such questions, for it is to their existence 
that we owe the presence of the distinguished guest in 
whose honor we assemble. 

We hope that the proceedings of the Joint High 
Commission which is to settle those questions may 
in all respects be successful; and it has been rightly 
characterized as an evidence of the close friendship 
which exists between the two countries that England 
has sent to preside over the deliberations of that body 
one of the most illustrious of her sons. 

Lord Herschell has been best and longest known 
here, and I think he would wish it to be so, in connec- 
tion with the profession in which he has attained the 
highest eminence; and I do not think that any of the 
learned judges who sit about this table will say that I 



FRANK R. LAWRENCE 257 

go too far when I assure him that many of his judg- 
ments pronounced as Lord Chancellor, in the House of 
Lords and in the Judicial Committee of the Privy 
Council, have long been considered as weighty and as 
persuasive in this country as they are authoritative in 
his native land. 

We greet and welcome his lordship right heartily. 
May his present mission be crowned with all success; 
may Great Britain and the United States furnish to 
the world another illustration of the fact that all dif- 
ferences between nations are capable of friendly solu- 
tion. May the two countries always stand side by side 
in pursuing every high purpose; may they be, in the 
words of one of England's greatest poets, 

" Yoked in all exercise of noble end -, " 

and may nothing ever occur to impair the friendship 
which so happily exists between them at the present 
time. 



17 



LORD HERSCHELL 

AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, NOVEMBER 5, 1898 

I THANK you with all my heart for the maimer in 
which you have received the proposal for my health 
which has been made to you by your president. I wish 
that I could make a speech worthy of your kindness, 
worthy of such an occasion. The circumstances, how- 
ever, are not propitious. Plain living and high think- 
ing, together with the hospitality of my friends in 
New York, naturally render speech-making impossible. 

I have been led to inquire why it is that I am hon- 
ored by such an invitation as this. I was informed 
that the club consisted largely of literary men, of ar- 
tists, musicians, dramatists, and lawyers, and naturally 
I began to ask how it came about that a club composed 
of such elements would do me the honor of making me 
their guest. To literature, in the proper sense of the 
term, I can make no claim. I saw an account the other 
day of my life, in which the writer said that I had 
made but one venture into the region of literature, 
and the result was such as to induce a feeling of satis- 
faction that I had ventured no further. This was 
rather hard, because my venture consisted only of an 
address, the subsequent revision and publication of 
which was somebody else's work, not my own. 

You remember, doubtless, that Mr. Disraeli said that 

258 



LORD HERSCHELL 259 

his critics were those who had failed in literature and 
art— a most unjust description of critics as a body, 
but no doubt perfectly correct as regards some mem- 
bers of the class. And it has always been a consola- 
tion to me to think that it may have been one of such 
critics who described my literary attempt. 

So I put literature aside and turned to art. Well, I 
never made any attempt to draw anything since I was 
a boy. I am bound to say that what I drew then was 
strictly of the impressionist school. I believe that my 
work conveyed an idea of what I intended to describe, 
but it looked almost everything to the imagination. I 
am not quite sure that the time will not arrive when 
my drawings will be considered high works of art, 
because there are certain schools of art nowadays of 
which all you can say is that you have a kind of dim, 
misty, vague idea of what the artist intended to con- 
vey; he has thrown too much upon you the responsi- 
bility of figuring it out. 

I will put aside art and turn to music. Well, I have 
performed in a very indifferent fashion at times upon 
a violoncello, but I am very sure that no artist of that 
instrument would regard me as his fellow. 

Gentlemen, I am aware that upon an occasion of 
this sort, when I am perhaps not expected to indulge 
in the greatest of reflections, something lighter and 
more entertaining will not be disagreeable. But, un- 
fortunately, this is a quality which I am assured is not 
in my possession. Some years ago I received a cut- 
ting from a provincial journal containing a very elabo- 
rate account of my life and career, and the writer 
ended up by saying that, unfortunately, there was one 



260 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

drawback to any real greatness, and that was that I 
was entirely devoid of the sense of humor. He was 
himself an unconscious humorist of the highest order, 
because he sent me a copy of the newspaper cutting 
with the request that I would inform him whether I 
thought it, on the whole, a just appreciation of my 
qualities. 

I am absolutely convinced that the criticism must 
be a just one, because I always believe everything that 
I read in the newspapers, except perhaps at election 
time. 

I have dismissed the various artistic qualities which 
might have justified this invitation, and I am aware 
that there is one bond between myself and your presi- 
dent and some members of this club, and that is the 
love for and practice of the profession of law. My 
heart always warms to lawyers. But at the same time 
I am not sure that the members of the various artistic 
and literary professions regard lawyers with absolute 
and unqualified satisfaction. We could not altogether 
do without them, and at the same time I am afraid, 
with all my love for lawyers, that they are regarded 
as a disagreeable necessity. 

I have come to the conclusion that the real reason 
why I am your guest to-night is that I am here as an 
Englishman, a representative of my country. I am 
rather alarmed at having used the language that I 
have. There may be some here perhaps who imagine 
that Scotland will say that in describing myself as 
English I have forgotten both Scotland and Ireland, 
and Wales may make her complaint. However, I 
think that I can justify my use of the term. I admit 



LORD HERSCHELL 261 

that it is a great misfortune that we have no all-em- 
bracing term to describe those who are members of the 
United Kingdom, the same as the Germans have. We 
have no all-embracing word, yet I know that the word 
Englishman may suffice for this reason: that at least 
all are English-speaking men, all English-men. 

Yet again, however, I pause because I reflect that if 
I thus describe Englishmen I embrace many more than 
the inhabitants of the United Kingdom, of the British 
Empire, and, in that sense, all whom I am addressing 
to-night are Englishmen also. And this surely is sig- 
nificant of one, at least, of the very strongest bonds of 
union between us— our common language, which means 
a common literature. The works in which we glory, 
you glory in also. The greatest of authors that the 
mother country ever produced were produced before 
the time when you became a nation, and are yours as 
much as ours ; and at that time, too, flourished some of 
the greatest artists. I need only name Reynolds and 
Gainsborough and Romney, in whom you may glory 
as much as ourselves. And so I might deal with other 
regions of art. The English school of music came into 
existence when you had a right to call it yours as much 
as we had to claim it as ours. 

Allusion has been made to the state of feeling which 
at present, happily,— most happily,— exists between 
your country and my own. Nothing, I can assure you, 
is to me a greater personal joy. There have been 
times, no doubt, when we have n't thought as well 
of each other— perhaps we have n't always taken the 
most charitable view of one another's actions. There 
was once a lord in the western part of England who 

17* 



262 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

sent for one of his clergy, about whom he had heard 
reports as to some goings-on, and he said: ''Mr. So- 
and-So, I regret to hear these stories about you. It 
is a matter of great concern to me." "Oh," replied 
the clergjTnan, ''surely your lordship does not believe 
them." "Well," observed the latter, "I have heard 
them repeated so often that I am almost forced to 
think that there must be some truth in them." "Oh, 
my lord, ' ' responded the clergyman, ' ' I have heard all 
sorts of stories about you, but I always say to myself 
that the devil is n't as black as he is painted." 

I join most heartily with your president in the belief 
that nothing could augur better for the future of the 
world and for the happiness of humanity than the 
closest union between the two English-speaking peo- 
ples. We have so much in common. Wherever our 
flag floats and wherever your flag floats, they cover so 
many institutions that we alike revere and love. It 
indicates in your case as in ours the reign of law, the 
supremacy of law, and the equality of the law under 
it. And I believe that this can be said of the United 
States and of Great Britain as it can be said probably 
of no other nation under heaven. 

And our institutions have a common origin. I need 
only point to the question of the relationship existing 
between the two countries, which seems to me a very 
speculative question, and one which it may be inter- 
esting to many to discuss; but it is certain that what- 
ever there may be, the original Constitution of the in- 
habitants of the United States, which declared that 
the institutions should be theirs as citizens of the 
United States, had its growth and origin in the mother 



LORD HERSCHELL 263 

country. And whether the people be now Anglo- 
Saxons, the institutions are of Anglo-Saxon origin. 
Wherever we may go, whatever may be the future 
destiny of the two peoples, this is absolutely certain— 
sooner or later, in the near future or in the distant 
vista, there will be planted there these institutions 
under which we have lived and flourished and thrived, 
and under which we hope our children and those who 
come after them may do the same. 

It has always been my dearest desire to promote a 
good understanding, a good feeling between the people 
of my country and the people of the United States. 
I do not believe I have ever actually said one word at 
critical moments that would embitter their relations, 
because I have always believed in their union— I am 
not speaking of paper alliances or of anything of that 
description, but of something much deeper and more 
enduring— I have always believed in their union for 
the good of the people. I have always looked forward 
to the time when, united, they might achieve something 
for humanity. I therefore need hardly say with what 
satisfaction it is that I have been called upon to take 
part in the deliberations in which I am now engaged. 
If I should have any share, however humble, in pro- 
moting good relations between the two countries, then 
I shall have done, in my opinion, the highest work that 
is open to any man living upon earth— that of promot- 
ing concord and harmony when concord and harmony 
between the nations may be good for the world. 



W. BOURKE COCKRAN 

AT THE DINNER TO LORD HERSCHELL, NOVEMBER 5, 1898 

THIS institution has afforded me in the past many 
pleasant evenings. To-night it has greatly in- 
creased the weight of my obligations. To meet an 
illustrious jurist who has achieved the highest distinc- 
tion in a profession which plays an important part in 
our own national life— who has been chief of that 
magistracy which is the fountain of our own jurispru- 
dence—is to enjoy a pleasure rare even among the hos- 
pitalities for which the Lotos Club is famous. When 
we welcome Lord Herschell to this banquet we express 
not merely our admiration for the qualities which 
have lifted him to the woolsack and which have won 
him an honorable place in the long line of Eng- 
lish chancellors, but we pay a tribute of respect to the 
judiciary from whose wisdom sprang that common law 
which, transplanted to this country, we may well claim 
has here found a congenial soil to nourish its roots, as 
well as a wider field to shade with its ever-growing 
branches. 

We may not all concur in Lord Herschell 's opinion 
that this government is modeled upon the government 
of Great Britain, but there is one inheritance from 
England which every one regards as of priceless value 
to this people, and that is respect and reverence for 
the judiciary. Some of us may question the policy of 

264 



W. BOURKE COCKRAN 265 

English statesmen, many of us may not approve the 
acts of English cabinets, most of us may doubt the wis- 
dom of extending English authority over reluctant 
peoples, but we are all unanimous in our admiration 
for English judges. And this respect for the judi- 
ciary which we have inherited from the English people 
might, without exaggeration, be described as the most 
valuable of our possessions, for it has proved the vital 
principle of constitutional government in this country. 
We are proud of our Constitution, and justly so; but 
that Constitution, whose fruits have been so beneficent 
as almost to suggest that its source was the inspiration 
of Heaven rather than the wisdom of man, contains 
nothing that is original. Every principle which it 
embodies is as old as human thought ; every one of its 
provisions for the security of individual rights has 
been copied from other charters of freedom. Yet it 
stands secure, effective, and powerful, while nearly 
every other government built on a written constitution 
has perished in confusion and disaster. The history 
of human progress is the history of attempts to estab- 
lish democratic institutions. The upward pathway of 
the race is strewn with the ruins of constitutions con- 
ceived in lofty ideals of human capacity, but wrecked 
under the stress of human passions. Our Constitution 
has been made secure and effective not by the formula- 
tion of new principles, but by committing it to the 
protection of an independent judiciary established as 
a distinct department of our government, whose shel- 
tering aegis can be invoked by the humblest citizen if 
his rights be threatened, no matter what may be the 
source from which the threat proceeds. This is the 



266 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

original feature of our government— the one distinc- 
tive American contribution to the civilization of the 
world. 

When Lord Herschell returns to his own country, 
and again surveys that magistracy whose origin is lost 
in the mists of antiquity, whose history is a long record 
of service in the cause of liberty, which, since the days 
of Gascoigne, has never hesitated to maintain the integ- 
rity of justice against the aggressions of king or prince, 
which has been untiring in finding ways to evade op- 
pressive laws and fruitful of inventions for protecting 
the rights of the subject, his reverence for its achieve- 
ments will be increased, his confidence in its future 
will be strengthened as he reflects that far beyond the 
sea he has seen another and a younger judiciary spring- 
ing from the same root, maintaining the same juris- 
prudence, and rising to an authority which no English 
judge ever exercised and which a few years ago few 
English judges could have conceived. He will realize 
that this younger judiciary from a subordinate has 
become a coordinate, aye, the dominant branch of a 
mighty government, the controlling element fixing the 
extent of its own authority and prescribing limits of 
power to every other department, exercising its func- 
tions with such courage and wisdom that here no execu- 
tive officer, however powerful, no legislative body, how- 
ever numerous its members, nor all of them combined, 
can disturb one hair on the citizen's head or one gar- 
ment on his back. As a judge he must rejoice to see 
here a court without soldiers or weapons able to de- 
liver the humblest citizen from the custody of ten 
times ten thousand soldiers, unless his detention can 



W. BOURKE COCKRAN 267 

be justified, not by the order of the commander— 
even though he be the President, and commander-in- 
chief of all the armies and navies of the United States 
—but by the law of the land. And even if the law- 
making power itself attempted by legislative enact- 
ments to invade the domain of individual rights, to 
confiscate a citizen's property, to restrain his liberty, 
to endanger his limb or to imperil his life, that court 
would nullify it, and reduce it to a mere impo- 
tent declaration of an unconstitutional purpose. And, 
above all, he must be gratified to see that this extraor- 
dinary and salutary power is not granted by an ex- 
press constitutional provision, but,— asserted by the 
courts as a necessary feature of constitutional govern- 
ment, and acclaimed by public opinion as the supreme 
invention of wisdom for the protection of human 
rights,— it has become the chief pillar of our govern- 
mental fabric, resting securely and immovably on the 
confidence of the people in the virtue of the judiciary, 
established by a century of illustrious service, con- 
firmed and broadened by the experience of every day 
in our national existence. 

Mr. Lawrence has said this evening with perfect truth 
that during the past year it has been the custom at 
banquets and other festive gatherings to pay attention ^ 
almost exclusively to men of the sword. Nations have \ 
been too busy crowning the soldiers who have extended • 
their frontiers to bestow much thought on the magis- 
trates who maintain peace within their borders. While 
this tendency is undeniable, I confess I can't quite 
understand it. I cannot accept the rather common be- 
lief that the soldier and the lawyer are hostile elements 



268 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

of human life. I regard them not as conflicting but 
as kindred forces, and I believe the progress of civili- 
zation is the fruit of their joint cooperation. Wher- 
ever the soldier leads, there the lawyer follows. The 
only permanent result that has ever flown from a vic- 
tory in battle has been the establishment of new insti- 
tutions—that is to say, a new system of laws. All the 
great struggles of the world, whether they be the deci- 
sive battles fought between nations or the cases decided 
every day in our courts between suitors, whether they 
are recorded by historians as wars between nations, or 
by reporters as litigations between individuals, they 
have all been conflicts between different systems of law. 
The soldier marching to battle carries a system of juris- 
prudence in his kQapsack, and the lawyer pleading 
for his client embodies in his brief a contention for 
some legal principle of general application. The sol- 
dier who wins a decisive victory overthrows certain 
institutions of government; the lawyer, from their 
ruins, constructs a new political system. The struggle 
of the soldier lasts for a day, the labor of the lawyer 
extends through generations. What remains of the 
greatest military campaigns except the impressions 
which they have left on civil institutions? What is 
left of the victories won by Roman generals, of the 
provinces which they conquered, the countries they 
despoiled, the cities they beautified, the palaces they 
built, the wealth they amassed? The very ruins of 
Roman magnificence have perished, but the Roman civil 
law still exercises a great influence over the civilized 
w^orld. What remains of Napoleon's empire, except 
the code that bears his name ? What is left of all the 



W. BOURKE COCKRAN 269 

struggles recorded in English history, from the battle 
of Hastings to the Revolution of 1688, of the castles 
defended and stormed during the civil wars, of the 
great houses established on the ruins of dynasties, and 
the murder of kings, except the ancient com m on law? 
Nations rise and flourish, decay and fall; their kings 
and their cabinets, their warriors and their nobles, their 
cities and their fortresses all pass away; the very dust 
to which they crumble is scattered on the wings of the 
wind, but a system of law once established remains a 
source of authority among men long after its founders 
have departed and the language of its framers has 
perished. 

I have heard it said that because the volume of liti- 
gation is shrinking, and because this country has just 
been engaging in war with a foreign power, the conse- 
quence of the lawyer is declining, while that of the 
soldier is increasing. In my judgment, neither the 
lawyer nor the soldier has declined in consequence. 
Each has cultivated his original field so effectively 
that little opportunity is left for further labor. But 
that fact, far from rendering either superfluous, 
opens a new and wider field of usefulness to both. 
The American soldier, who has never drawn a sword 
except in defense of liberty, has shown by an unbroken 
record of success that justice is invincible. Never has 
this been proved so decisively as during this very year, 
when we saw a great nation deliberately pour out its 
blood and its treasure with lavish hand, not to repel 
invasion of its own territory or avenge insult to its own 
dignity or prevent injury to its own interests, but to 
prevent the perpetration of injustice by a foreign op- 



270 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

pressor on a weak and helpless people beyond our doors. 
If the American soldier remain faithful to the cham- 
pionship of justice, as I believe he will ; if this govern- 
ment now declines to accept any indemnity or recom- 
pense for its sacrifices, other than the triumph of the 
cause for which they were made ; if it prove by forbear- 
ance in victory that its strength in war was exercised 
not to extend the boundaries of its own dominion, but 
to extend the dominion of justice throughout the world, 
then I believe that henceforth no government can un- 
dertake to make war for a baser reason, and the peace 
of the world will hereafter depend not upon the caprice 
of rulers, the ambition of statesmen, or the greed of 
mercenaries, but upon the judgment of civilization. 
Under the stimulating example of what the American 
soldier has achieved, the valor he has displayed, his 
efficiency in repelling invasion, in suppressing rebel- 
lion, and now in overthrowing despotism even on for- 
eign soil, I believe the world will come to regard stand- 
ing armies as unnecessary burdens. Military service 
will no longer be the function of paid mercenaries, but 
the honorable duty of every citizen. The soldier will 
not decline but grow in importance and repute when 
every soldier will be a citizen and every citizen a sol- 
dier; when war will be impossible unless waged for a 
cause which the conscience of a nation must approve. 

And the lawyer, too, will hereafter play a nobler and 
greater part in the evolution of government. Lawyers 
and judges have performed their part so well, they 
have made the principles of jurisprudence so nearly 
perfect, that it is difficult now for honest men to 
dispute which way lies the path of justice in any 



W. BOURKE COCKRAN 271 

transaction of life. As the kingdom of justice ad- 
vances the field of dispute necessarily narrows. The 
same causes which operate to preserve peace between 
nations operate to restrict private litigation in the 
courts. Men are learning to understand the waste, 
the folly, and the wickedness of contest, and the profit, 
the glory, the godliness of peace and industrial cooper- 
ation. But while the prospect of private retainers 
may grow fainter, new, profitable and honorable 
fields of usefulness are opening before the footsteps of 
the lawyer. He will obtain larger fees and perform a 
better service to his client and to the community by 
assisting in the management of great industrial enter- 
prises, guiding them throug^ the shoals and narrows 
of commercial activity so as to avoid disputes and" dis- 
turbances; directing to fruitful enterprises all the en- 
ergies formerly wasted in litigation and contention; 
preserving peace between employer and employee, stim- 
ulating the productivity of both labor and capital, in- 
creasing the commodities available for human comfort— 
thus widening the prosperity of the whole community. 
But the lawyer's highest service and largest opportu- 
nity will be in laboring always to maintain the inde- 
pendence and increase the efficiency of the judiciary 
which, as I have already said, has developed in this 
country into the controlling element of government, 
the vital force of constitutional freedom. 

New questions of grave importance to the whole social 
fabric are rising to prominence with which nations 
everywhere must deal if civilization is to live. These 
questions touch not the relations of countries, but of 
individuals to each other. They do not involve the 



272 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

division of the earth's surface among different nations, 
but the division of the earth's product among the differ- 
ent elements contributing to its creation. I believe these 
questions will be settled here, because here we have a 
judiciary which has made every difficulty that ever 
arose in the pathway of this Republic a stepping-stone 
to higher conditions. With these questions legislative 
bodies cannot deal, for they cannot be settled by the 
mere enactment of new laws. They must be settled 
on the basis of natural justice, justice so clearly defined 
and so obvious that no honest man can doubt it. Natu- 
ral justice is not of to-day or of yesterday— it is eter- 
nal. It does not rise from the experience of man, but 
descends from heaven itself. It cannot be established, 
but it can be discovered by human wisdom, and surely 
if the sound principles of morality governing these 
questions are to be formulated correctly it must be by 
the courts which have always been the sanctuary of 
justice and by the judges who have always been its 
faithful priests. 

In aU that I have said I hope our guest will detect 
no note of national boastfulness, but rather an expres- 
sion of confidence in the security of that civilization 
based on the common law which is the priceless posses- 
sion of both countries. "We cannot praise the Ameri- 
can judiciary without paying tribute to the English 
judiciary; we cannot cherish the stream and overlook 
the fountain. 

We have heard many words of wisdom from Lord 
Herschell to-night— some of weighty import concern- 
ing an alliance between the two peoples. All the alli- 
ance that can ever exist between the two countries 



W. BOURKB COCKRAN 273 

exists to-day. Every decision of the courts on either 
side of the ocean and every law passed by the legisla- 
tures of both countries tending to maintain order 
against lawlessness, reason against violence, the su- 
premacy of the civil over the military power, are fea- 
tures of an alliance which has always subsisted and 
which no written treaty could either strengthen or dis- 
turb. And the benefits of this alliance are not confined 
to these two countries. Its uninterrupted operation 
must result in such prosperity as will show all the na- 
tions of the earth the true pathway to enduring peace 
and measureless prosperity. May this alliance, based 
on a common jurisprudence, continue forever effective 
to widen the ramparts of freedom and to strengthen 
the bulwarks of order by extending the reign of jus- 
tice and the principles of the common law over all the 
nations of the earth. 



18 



SETH LOW 

AT THE DINNER TO LORD HERSCHELL, NOVEMBER 5, 1898 

I TRUST that I may be permitted to caution the dis- 
tinguished guest of the evening against a wrong in- 
ference that he may have been tempted to draw from 
one of the details of this banquet. I observed that 
when the Roman punch was brought into the room the 
English flag was on one side of it and the American 
flag on the other. I hope our guest did not infer that 
that was an indication of any coolness between our two 
countries. If he did, I think we must give to him the 
true interpretation of the symbol as illustrated by an 
anecdote I heard last summer of a distinguished jus- 
tice of the Supreme Court of Connecticut. It was 
noticed at a certain dinner that he allowed himself to 
be helped to ice cream three or four times, and some 
one remarked to his friend at the table, ''The judge 
seems to be very fond of ice cream." ''Yes," said 
the friend, "it warms him up." I have no doubt that 
the Roman punch was furnished to us this evening 
with that friendly intent, and my interpretation of 
the symbolism of it on this occasion is still further 
vindicated by the fact that it has already disappeared. 
So whatever coolness there may have been is a matter 
of the past. 

Like his Lordship, I am no musician; but this I 
274 



SETH LOW 275 

know. If a tuning-fork be struck, and there be within 
the sound of it another fork tuned to the same key, 
though they be far apart and apparently unrelated, 
there will come from the second instrument an an- 
swering note. It seemed to me, during the last sum- 
mer, that there came from our cousins across the sea 
that answering note which showed that their hearts 
and ours were beating as one. And I like to think, 
when it is the other fork that is struck, that the same 
true answer, the answer of a kindred spirit, will go 
back to them. 

I am really perplexed as to how I can get into sym- 
pathetic relation with the guest of the evening upon 
the subject of the law. I am not a lawyer-orator, as 
Mr. Root is. I remember that I did go to the law 
school for a single year. Meeting my preceptor a few 
years later in the City Hall Park, he expressed his 
regret that I did not come back for the second year to 
take the degree. I said that I should have been glad 
to do so, but circumstances forbade. Yet I thought 
I had learned one thing during the year I did pass in 
the law school under his instruction which would be 
of value to me as long as I lived. He asked what that 
was, and I said I had learned just enough of the law 
to understand the importance of keeping out of it. 

There is perhaps in the law a good enough bond of 
sympathy between many of our fellow-citizens and the 
guest of the evening ; but that scarcely furnishes to me 
a common meeting-ground with one who has occupied 
the lofty position of Lord Chancellor of England. 
And yet I may perhaps properly claim to extend to 
him my greetings as the titular head of one of the law 



276 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

schools of the city. I am, indeed, the President of the 
Faculty of the Columbia school of law; but I hope 
that my learned friends here to-night will not for 
that reason question the orthodoxy of the school when 
I assure them that the president needs to know only 
two things— namely, what he does n't know, and who 
knows it. That thought has always been a consolation 
to me. I endeavor to conduct my relations with the 
teaching of the law at Columbia University upon that 
basis; otherwise I am afraid that the common law of 
England might become in the transition the uncommon 
law of the State of New York. 

Reference has been made to the Dreyfus trial, and 
you may be interested in an incident that my relation 
with many branches of learning has brought to my 
attention, bearing on that question. I was talking with 
the French gentleman who is at the head of our de- 
partment of the Eomance languages. In most respects 
he is an entirely acceptable teacher, though I am 
obliged to confess that he cannot pronounce his own 
language in a way that the president of the university 
can understand. I ventured to remark to him one day 
that the procedure at the Zola trial struck the Ameri- 
can mind as very singular. "But," I said, with that 
breadth of sympathy which is natural in the president 
of a university, "I dare say that our own legal pro- 
cedures seem just as strange to you ? " He said : ' ' They 
do. Some time ago Dumas wrote a play. He wanted 
to bring suit in America to protect his rights in this 
play. The papers were drawn and presented to him, 
that he might take the necessary steps. The first thing 
that struck his attention was the fact that he was called 



SETH LOW 277 

upon to swear that he was the author of the play. 
'Swear that I wrote that play?' said he. 'Every one 
knows that I wrote the play! I will not swear!' " 
And because he would not swear he could get no pro- 
tection from our courts. I thought the illustration 
suggested happily the different points of view of the 
two peoples concerning the procedure of the law. 

There is, however, one point of sympathy between 
the guest of the evening and myself on which I may be 
permitted to speak a single word with some confidence. 
He is the Chancellor of the University of London ; and 
certainly as the President of Columbia University, the 
oldest educational institution of learning in the city of 
New York, I may give him greeting and not be 
ashamed. I think it most interesting and significant 
that as education has become democratized in England 
it has been found necessary to create in London a 
teaching university for the city. For many years the 
University of London existed simply as an examin- 
ing center, but its examinations are not sufficient now 
to give to the people the rich food of the higher 
learning. 

I think that that development, like kindred develop- 
ments in the cities of this country, is full of hope. 
The cities draw into themselves the strongest men in 
every part of the world. They do so among the teach- 
ers of the land just as surely as in any other profes- 
sion, and I think it is self-evident that the cities must 
not only take in, but they must give out ; and just be- 
cause they draw from all parts of the land the most 
virile and powerful intelligence, the obligation rests 
heavily upon them to repay the world by service of 

18* 



278 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

the highest order, in universities and in every other 
field. 

Therefore, on behalf of the oldest university of the 
second city of the world and the first city on this side 
of the Atlantic, I bid Lord Herschell a right royal and 
hearty welcome. The phraseology of old King's Col- 
lege, now Columbia College, comes naturally to my 
mind on this occasion— ''I bid you a hearty and a 
royal welcome to the city of New York." 



FEANK E. LAWEENCE 

AT THE DINNER TO KEAR-ADMIRAL SCHLEY, 
NOVEMBER 26, 1898 

(In introducing the gnest of the evening.) 

WE assemble to-night in honor of one of the chief 
participants in the recent great drama of real 
life, where contending nations occupied the stage, with 
the destinies of an oppressed people as the stake, and 
where there awaited the vanquished captivity or death, 
and the victor honor and glory. 

Our guest of to-night was no stranger to scenes of 
battle and danger such as those through which he has 
lately passed; for when scarcely more than a boy he 
commanded a vessel of war under Farragut, and had 
his career terminated thirty years ago, his name would 
have been remembered by a grateful country as one of 
its heroes. 

Years ago an officer in the service of the United 
States, while engaged in a vain quest for the North 
Pole, was lost with a few companions far within the 
Arctic Circle. After long delay it was determined to 
send an expedition for his relief, and, the task being 
one which required unusual intrepidity combined with 
coolness of calculation, the direction of the little squad- 
ron was intrusted to the charge of a commander in the 
navy, Commander Winfield Scott Schley. The mission 

279 



280 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

was performed so well that, with scarcely a clue, 
those of whom they went in search were found, per- 
ishing of cold and hunger, and by the narrowest 
margin were rescued from death, and Greely and 
his companions were restored to life and home and 
friends. 

I remember very well the banquet which was given 
to the officers of the relief expedition upon their return 
from the quest, and as it was my pleasant duty to per- 
form on that occasion, at Delmonico's, the same agree- 
able task which falls upon me to-night, I remember 
particularly the speech of the principal guest of the 
evening. At that time the navy was at a very low 
ebb so far as public interest in it was concerned. The 
antiquated vessels which had seen service twenty or 
thirty years before were still in use, and it seemed al- 
most impossible to secure the necessary legislation to 
bring about their replacement by new ones. I remem- 
ber that the guest of that evening called attention to 
the fact that the United States stood at that time with- 
out a single modern vessel and without a single modern 
gun. He said, if after a lapse of fourteen or fifteen 
years I remember rightly, that as we were then circum- 
stanced it would take at least three years to assemble 
the material and establish the plant from which mod- 
ern guns could be made. He predicted, what few of 
us then believed, that, according to the universal ex- 
perience of mankind, war within our time must come, 
and I remember that he urged upon his audience that 
night the supreme importance of being ready for war 
whenever it should arrive. While none of us who lis- 



FRANK R. LAWRENCE 281 

tened to that speech realized how likely it was that its 
prophecy would be fulfilled, we all felt confident that, 
if war must come, the gallant officer to whom we lis- 
tened that night would be foremost among those who 
took part in it. 

When hostilities began last spring I believe the peo- 
ple generally felt satisfaction in the appointment of 
Commodore Schley to one of the principal commands ; 
and we all feel now, I know, that he is one of those 
to whom it is chiefly due that the war was short, that 
the war was decisive, that the objects for which it was 
begun were completely accomplished, and we hail him 
as one of the principal heroes of the war who have 
shed honor and glory and luster upon the American 
name. 

It was my privilege to spend some time at Old Point 
Comfort last spring, while the Flying Squadron, under 
command of the then Commodore Schley, was lying 
in Hampton Roads, and preparing to put to sea, within 
sight of the spot where the first two ironclad vessels 
which ever engaged in battle, the Monitor and the Mer- 
rimac, had met in memorable conflict thirty-five years 
before. When the order for departure came, the rapid 
change of the vessels from beauty to ugliness, from the 
hue of white-winged peace to that of grim-visaged war, 
was most impressive. 

A lady who had observed the contented manner in 
which the commanding officer was conducting his prep- 
arations, suggested to him, in my hearing, that he 
surely must feel great anxiety for his own safety and 
for that of his men; to which he replied characteris- 



282 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

tically in the trite old saying: "Madam, you can't 
make omelets if you don't break eggs." 

I said to him, ''Commodore, if you will go and de- 
stroy the Spanish fleet, when you come back we will 
give you a dinner at the Lotos Club." He replied, 
"Consider it a bargain." If it was a bargain, how 
admirably he performed his part of it is known to all 
the world. 

It is not for me now to dwell upon the uncertain 
quest for the enemy, the long vigil in deadly tropical 
heat before the narrow mouth of Santiago harbor, or 
even upon the brilliant finish on the third of last July, 
when Schley's flagship was in the van, receiving more 
shots from the enemy than any other American vessel, 
and when the entire Spanish fleet was destroyed with- 
out loss or serious injury to a single vessel of our 
own. We feel that in all these events our guest of 
to-night so bore himself as to delight the American 
people; that to him, as much as to any man, is due 
the triumph of our arms and the gaining of a victory 
large enough, as he has said, for all of us— large enough 
for all who took part in it, large enough for the whole 
American people. 

Gentlemen, the American sailor represents to us the 
spirit of adventure, the spirit which led Columbus to 
cross an unknown sea, the spirit which first led Fran- 
cis Drake to sail around the globe, the spirit which 
sent Martin Frobisher and so many after him in search 
of a northwest passage, the spirit without which so 
many glorious chapters in the world's history must 
have remained unwritten and so much of the world's 
store of knowledge must have remained unknown. 



FRANK R. LAWRENCE 283 

I have very great pleasure in proposing the health of 
our guest. We greet him as one of the most brave, 
accomplished, and distinguished officers of a service in 
which the whole people feel the utmost pride— the 
American navy. I ask you, gentlemen, to rise and 
drink the health of Rear-Admiral Winfield Scott 
Schley. 



WINFIELD SCOTT SCHLEY 

AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, NOVEMBER 26, 1898 

THIS is not the first time that I have enjoyed the 
hospitality of your organization. I came here 
prepared for a most excellent dinner, and I brought 
with me a splendid appetite. Your president has been 
kind enough to paint for you a word portrait of me 
that I hardly think I deserve. I am really unable to 
recognize myself in the framing of words which he has 
so beautifully placed around it. I was simply a sharer 
in great events. I had the honor of assisting, merely, 
in bringing about a result which has been glorious for 
our country, and which has made the third of July a 
red-letter day in our modern history. 

The matchless victory of the peerless Dewey in Ma- 
nila on May 1, and that on July 3 off Santiago, sup- 
plemented by the beautiful work of our army in the 
field before Santiago, were but the culmination and 
the outcome of the preparation and equipment that had 
been organized by the Navy Department and its offi- 
cials. How well our work was done the wrecks now 
lying upon the beach on the south side of Cuba tell 
the better story. It is a curious thing, however, in the 
circumstance of battles how little things frequently de- 
termine results. It had been determined by the fleet 
of Admiral Cervera to leave Santiago on the night of 

284 



WINFIELD SCOTT SCHLEY 285 

July 2. By some one of the strange circumstances of 
telepathy, I felt that a critical moment was at hand, 
and had determined to connect the forward and the 
after engines of the ship. But so convinced was I that 
a movement was at hand that I feared to be caught in 
the operation, which would require nearly an hour. 
Hence, when the commanding officer assured me that 
better speed could be made with two engines and full 
boiler power, I concluded that we would take the risk. 
Much has to be risked in battle. 

Now, it appeared that at the very hour when this 
question was occupying my own mind Cervera had in- 
tended to attempt his escape. But a curious circum- 
stance occurred to the westward. The enemy had re- 
treated over the high hills to the westward of Santiago. 
The army lines were closing so rapidly that there was 
little chance left, and they availed themselves of it. 
The insurgents took possession of the block-houses that 
had been evacuated, and burned them in succession to 
the number of six, which corresponded exactly with 
the number of ships forming the fleet of Cervera. He 
assumed at once that the insurgents were communicat- 
ing the fact of his coming out that night, and he de- 
cided to postpone it until morning, in order to fool the 
Yankees. It was a fatal decision. That little fact 
contributed much to determine the result. 

It ought to be said, also, that the discipline of our 
navy was so complete, and its officers and men were so 
constantly vigilant, that the first movement of the 
enemy was discovered simultaneously from every ship. 
The time chosen by Admiral Cervera was 9 :30 in the 
morning, because he assumed that we would be at 



286 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

quarters at that time— and we were. From the time 
that the first vessel carrying his flag, the Maria Teresa, 
appeared in the mouth of the harbor until the first gun 
was fired it was exactly three minutes. The ships came 
out in beautiful order; technically denominated, they 
were in column, at distance, under a high pressure of 
steam. Signal was made immediately to clear for ac- 
tion—for close action. It was followed at once by a 
general inward movement of the fleet. Fire was imme- 
diately opened, and such a bombardment as took place 
in the next fifteen minutes rarely falls to the experi- 
ence of any one to behold. The batteries to the east 
and west of the harbor opened upon our vessels, the 
ships themselves fired with a rapidity that was only 
possible with modern rapid-fire guns, and the storm of 
projectiles that passed above us was simply terrific. 
I myself was standing on the bridge at the time, in 
order to get a better view of the situation and to de- 
termine what would be the method chosen of the only 
three possible, and to my great delight the movement 
was made westward, which was the most vulnerable. 

All the ships advanced as closely as their speed 
would permit until the purpose of the enemy had been 
accurately determined to be that of flight rather than 
fight. I found myself in the Brooklyn, in a position 
where, if the turn had been made inward, fifteen min- 
utes of very precious time would have been lost through 
masking the enemy against our own fire; whereas in 
turning outward they were uncovered and the fire was 
continuous, with the result that in twenty-nine minutes 
from the opening gun four of the enemy's vessels were 
practically destroyed, were on fire and retreating to 



WINFIELD SCOTT SCHLEY 287 

the beach, while two remained. The Viscaya and the 
Colon put their helms a-port and attempted to escape 
to the westward. They were pursued by all the vessels 
of the fleet except one or two, which remained behind 
to perform those offices of humanity, in saving life, 
which are common to civilized warfare. 

For fifty-four minutes from the destruction of the 
Teresa there was a running fight with the Oquendo, in 
which that vessel suffered terribly. It was the first 
time in my life that I had ever seen shingles fly from a 
ship. Her men were driven from her batteries, the 
ship was pierced by over one hundred projectiles, her 
water-mains were cut, she was set on fire, and one shell 
alone killed and wounded eighty people. Just before 
she surrendered, which was at 11 :05, she made a move- 
ment as if turning to seaward, when she received three 
projectiles almost simultaneously, one striking the belt 
and the other two perforating her soft parts above the 
belt. That was sufficient. Fire burst from her port- 
holes, her hatches were taken off, and flame and smoke 
burst from those; she turned inshore a distance of 
perhaps half a mile, and I thought she was going to 
capsize. As soon, however, as she had hauled down 
her colors and had made for the beach to seek the best 
place to save her people, we saw that the Colon had 
been steaming up a little closer inshore. She was then 
out of range— except very long range— and I directed 
Captain Cook to go to dinner, because I thought that 
men who were to fight ought to be fed. 

The Oregon and the Brooklyn, being faster than the 
other ships, had separated considerably from the fleet 
that was following up. I then sent word, directing 



288 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

the Oregon to do the same, to the men below, the fire- 
men and coal-heavers, that force of noble, silent, effec- 
tive workers, npon whose efforts was to depend the 
fate of the Colon. I heard, coming up through the 
ventilators on the bridge, the song; 

'^ John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave." 

Those sterling fellows shoveled coal for all fhey were 
worth, and the engines took hold of the ship and she 
bounded forward like a greyhound. After thirty min- 
utes of pretty good feeding we found that we had 
gained so much upon the Colon that I signaled Captain 
Clark of the Oregon to let go one of his railroad trains 
at her. He fired one of his thirteen-inch shells, and it 
landed just under the stern of the Colon. The Brook- 
lyn then fired an eight-inch shell, which landed about 
an equal distance ahead of her. Clark wigwagged to 
me, ^'A little ahead," and I wigwagged back to him, 
*'A little astern." Then there came a signal from the 
Oregon asking me if that was not an Italian ship that 
we saw. I answered no; I thought she wore other 
colors now. That was the pleasantry of the battle. 

A third shot was fired from the thirteen-inch guns of 
the Oregon, which was three hundred to four hundred 
yards astern of me, a little further inshore. That shell 
passed fore and aft and over the Colon. The fourth 
shell, fired from the Brooklyn, an eight-inch shell, 
struck her on the quarter, and entered the cabin and 
wrecked everything. We were coming very rapidly 
into range, and, seeing that he was occupying very 
dangerous ground— he could not have escaped because 



WINFIELD SCOTT SCHLEY 289 

his course would have been south and in ten minutes 
more he would have had to fight— he fired a gun to 
leeward, hauled doAvn his colors, and ran his ship 
ashore. We approached him very rapidly, and a boat 
from the Brooklyn, with Captain Cook, the flag cap- 
tain, wa^ sent on board to demand an unconditional 
surrender, which was granted. 

Some time afterward the commander-in-chief came 
upon the scene, and the prize was turned over to him 
and a substantial report made of the circumstances. 
While we were engaged in an informal conversation 
about the features of the battle Commander Eaton ap- 
peared and reported that the Spanish battle-ship PeZa^/o 
was on the coast. Admiral Sampson turned to me and 
said: *' Schley, take the Oregon and go eastward and 
finish up the job." I immediately went on board my 
ship and started to the eastward, and after I had been 
gone about an hour I saw a vessel just ahead of me 
which bore all the earmarks of a Spaniard, and I felt 
that she was treading upon very dangerous ground. 
My belief was further fortified later by the Vixen 
coming from the westward with the commander-in- 
chief's flag lieutenant on board. He came alongside 
and reported to me that the vessel which I saw was the 
Pelayo; that he had seen her. I told him to go to the 
westward and let the commander-in-chief know, and 
said I would go to the eastward and engage her. We 
felt after the action of that day that there was n't any- 
thing that bore the Spanish flag that would dare meet 
any vessel of ours. Finding ourselves rather nearer 
the coast than was favorable to manoeuvering, I started 
about southeast for a few minutes, when the vessel 

19 



290 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

ahead changed her course to about southwest. Then 
we thought we had a fight sure ; but as she uncovered 
and exposed herself I saw that she was a turreted ship 
and not a battle-ship such as the Pelayo. Our men— 
I think it was the rule in all the ships— were carefully 
educated to the appearance of all these Spanish vessels 
by having pictures of them posted in various places 
about the ships. While Captain Cook and myself were 
talking over the situation one of the men came up and 
said, "Commodore, that is not the Pelayo; it is the 
Cardinal Cisneros.^' Well, that was easy. I said to 
Captain Cook, "Cook, that is not so hard a nut as I 
supposed ; go for him at full speed. ' ' 

It was difficult to distinguish the flag, the colors 
being red and white, instead of red and yellow, and 
running in the same direction as those of the Spanish 
flag. We approached to within twenty-five hundred 
yards, and I had just given the order to commence 
firing when I saw a signal go up on board the ship. I 
wondered what a Spaniard meant by signaling to us. 
Cook suggested that perhaps it was to find out what 
was the matter on the beach; and when we made it 
out, by the commercial code, it was the announce- 
ment that the vessel was the Austrian battle-ship 
Maria Teresa — a bad name for that day in that 
locality. We steamed up alongside, and the command- 
ing officer came aboard and said he was in search of 
the commander-in-chief ; that he wanted to go into San- 
tiago to carry off a lot of German citizens who were in 
peril. I told him that I did n't believe he would be 
allowed to go in, but that when the commander-in-chief 
came up off Santiago in the morning he would per- 



WINFIELD SCOTT SCHLEY 291 

haps give Mm the authority he asked, and that if the 
commander-in-chief was not present I should certainly 
not do so. He said that he had noticed that something 
had gone on, but he did not know the result. I ran 
quickly over the result of the action for him. He 
said, "You say I must come up in the morning. Now, 
what do you think would be a safe distance for me to 
lie off Santiago to-night?" I said that I thought ten 
miles would be quite sufficient. He said, ''I will dou- 
ble it and make it twenty, to be on the safe side." 
Well, he did go off the harbor to the southward about 
twenty miles, and there he remained until nine o'clock 
the next morning, when he appeared off the harbor, 
and, as I supposed, he was not permitted to enter, and 
was obliged to send a steam launch in. 

That practically ended the operations of July 3. 
There were many other officers and many other men 
who did not have the opportunity of actual combat, 
but whose services deserve quite as much reward and 
quite as much mention, not only for their alertness, but 
for their exposure, very often in vessels that had no 
protection and in which a greater risk was run than in 
our case, where belted protection was afforded. 

It ought to be said of the men of our navy that as 
gunners they are without peers. I came to the conclu- 
sion, after the result of that third of July had been 
worked out, that the fellow who wanted to fight us 
had better come over here with a lot of fellows who 
could shoot if he expected to be in our class. So far 
as my own connection with the battle was concerned, 
it was, as I have said, merely that of a sharer with 
others ; and the praise which has been accorded to me 



292 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

is much more satisfactorily enjoyed when I feel that 
even the smallest share is big enough to divide with my 
whole command. 

War unquestionably shortens life, but no doubt 
broadens it in the same proportion. It has been said 
by a very celebrated authority that every generation 
of men should be able properly to defend the title to 
the spurs they have inherited. It is also said by the 
same authority : " If you point out to me a nation that 
has gone for two generations without war, I will point 
out to you one whose decadence has begun." War, 
of course, is one of the necessary evils. It is the medi- 
cine which the body politic has to take in very much 
the same way that the physician gives you medicine for 
the natural or corporeal body. It frequently purifies 
the blood, and teaches people to know each other as 
they can in no other way. 

My connection with the operations in the West In- 
dies terminated only on the fifth day of November at 
Porto Rico, where the President assigned me to duty 
as one of the commission. In sixty days from the day 
we landed there was not a Spanish uniform left in the 
island, and none nearer to us than Cuba. I found that 
the Spanish officer was a very cultivated gentleman, a 
very brave man, and that he was susceptible to argu- 
ment and to fact just the same as anybody else. It was 
merely a little diplomatic parley, in which I think we 
were a little superior. Anyhow, we accomplished our 
purpose, and the flag of our country floats everywhere 
in Porto Rico, whose people are very gentle and whose 
capabilities are very great. 

It will of course be a difficult thing to overturn the 



WINFIELD SCOTT SCHLEY 293 

prejudices of four hundred years. Nothing that I 
know of is so difficult to get rid of as prejudice ; but I 
am quite sure that the moment the population seizes 
the fact that the rule of repression has been removed 
and the rule of confidence established, there will be as 
much happiness in the new state of things as it is pos- 
sible to imagine. I feel that Porto Rico has immense 
possibilities, and I am sure, under our beneficent gov- 
ernment and under our strong people, it will be a most 
important addition. Just what its place in our sys- 
tem is, or is to be, is not a question for me to determine ; 
that is left to the wisdom of the Congress and the 
government. As naval officers, our only politics is de- 
votion to country and the belief that our government 
is always right. 



19* 



HENEY C. POTTER 

(BISHOP OF NEW YORK) 

AT THE DINNER TO REAR-ADMIRAL SCHLEY, 
NOVEMBER 26, 1898 

THE president of the club has remarked that this 
is the first time that he has welcomed me as a 
guest. Let me say that I have before been the guest 
of this organization. I never heard it described by 
that political term, but the memory of that occasion 
constrains me to say to you what I otherwise should 
not have said. I will venture to say that, more 
years ago than your young president will probably 
remember, Mr. Whitelaw Reid, whose portrait I see 
here on the wall, was president of the Lotos Club, and 
the club, according to its habit of entertaining dis- 
tinguished foreigners, gave a dinner and afterward a 
reception to Mr. Charles Kingsley. I was not able to 
be present at the dinner, but came in afterward to the 
reception. As I ascended the steps leading to the hall 
of the club-room, which was then near Fourth Avenue, 
on the east side of Union Square, I was greeted by 
Mr. Reid, who said: "We are now having a speech 
by Mr. John G. Saxe, and we will call next upon 
you.'' I had just come to the city, and the grav- 
ity of the occasion bewildered me. Mr. Saxe was 
talking earnestly, and every now and then he illus- 
trated his remarks by an anecdote. As soon as my 

294 



HENRY C. POTTER 295 

turn came I took up tlie thread of his discourse and re- 
called an anecdote which had been told me by Mr. 
George William Curtis. Mr. Curtis had been walking 
to and fro waiting for his train on the station plat- 
form of a town where he had lectured. An elderly 
female approached him and, peering into his face, 
said, ''Will you check my trunk?" Mr. Curtis said, 
''Madam, the baggage-master will check your trunk." 
Looking at him again, she said, "Why, are n't you the 
baggage-master?" A cold chill ran down his spine 
at that unusual identity. As the train was late, after 
a little while he approached her and said, "Madam, 
will you mind telling me why you thought I was the 
baggage-master?" "Because," she replied, "you have 
got the big nose." I detected the full significance of 
it, and after a while I felt my way to Canon Kingsley's 
presence and saw his nose. 

I have been able to see only one side of Admiral 
Schley's face. Nobody knows how much I admire Ad- 
miral Schley's distinguished features, and how much 
I recognize the distinguished service which he has per- 
formed. In referring to this I am at a still further 
disadvantage. Opposite to me— for what reason I 
know not— there has been placed a row of distinguished 
divines— Rev. Dr. Savage, Rev. Dr. Slicer, Rev. Dr. 
IngersoU, and the pastor of "The Sun," the Rev. Dr. 
Lord. Clergymen are apt to be extremely critical. A 
preacher I knew was asked what he thought of a lecture 
which he had heard. "I was thinking all the time," 
said he, "how much better I could do it myself." 
That is the habit of the clerical mind. One of my 
cloth, on one occasion, went to preach a sermon on 



296 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

Sunday afternoon in an insane-asylum near Chicago, 
and, having arrived there, he was met by the super- 
intendent and was asked what he was going to preach 
about. He said, "I have written a sermon on the 
blessings of the gospel to the insane." The superin- 
tendent said, ''Why, you cannot preach that here; 
everybody in this place is insane. ' ' The preacher said, 
''I can't preach anything else because I have got only 
this sermon with me, and I cannot preach without a 
manuscript." "Is n't there any other subject that 
you could talk on?" inquired the superintendent. 
''Nothing else," said the preacher, "except a sermon 
which I preached this morning on foreign missions." 
"You must preach the sermon on foreign missions, 
then," said the superintendent. He did so. He was 
very much impressed by the apparent intelligence of 
his hearers and by the close attention which they gave 
to his sermon. When he had finished one man from the 
audience came up to my clerical friend, who said to 
him : " I saw, sir, that you appeared to be interested in 
my discourse. Will you tell me what particular part 
of it you liked best?" "Yes," said the man; "when 
you described about the mothers in India flinging their 
babes beneath the wheels of the Juggernaut I wondered 
why, when you were a baby, your mother had n't 
flung you there." That speculation, sir, is occupying 
these clerical minds at present. 

I am very sensible of the kind hospitality of the 
club, and I have an unmixed delight in doing my 
homage to the distinguished sailor who sits on my left. 
I shall have most grateful remembrance of the cordial 
welcome which I have found to-night. 



WALLACE F. RANDOLPH 

AT THE DINNER TO REAR-ADMIRAL SCHLEY, 
NOVEMBER 26, 1898 

IT is a chronic fact that I never could and cannot 
still make a speech. I have not been gifted in that 
line. It is a thing I think which should be referred to 
the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. 
Of course I cannot refrain from answering such a 
flattering call as that to speak of the service to which 
I belong, and to which I have belonged for nearly 
thirty-eight years. At the same time, I must call at- 
tention, also, to the fact that this is not by any means 
an army night. This is a navy night, and it should 
be, and I look in vain for some sustaining eye or voice 
of the military profession, and find that I am deluged 
with a cataract of salt water. I see naval stripes all 
around me, and, what is worse, naval heroes. I played 
such a very insignificant part in the recent contest 
that were it not for the fact that there is no one here 
but myself to speak of the army, I should ask to be 
excused. What is more, my grandfather was a sailor, 
my father was rather sailorish, and I ran away so often 
from home and was always courting a boat to such an 
extent that I may be said to have inherited all their 
proclivities. 

297 



298 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

Some years ago Captain Evans— Captain "Bob" 
Evans— came to me with a brutal invitation to go to 
Europe. He knew how easily I was tempted, and how 
readily I would fall. I went. Captain Evans said 
that he started out with the idea that he commanded 
the frigate Saratoga. After eight hours at sea he said 
he was mighty glad to be allowed a decent resting-place 
on board that boat. It seemed to him that he had ab- 
sorbed all the functions, and was simply a passenger. 
It goes without saying that we had a very nice time. 
I went to General Sherman upon that occasion and 
said, ''General Sherman, I should like to go to Eu- 
rope." He said, "What do you want to go to Europe 
for?" I said, "I have an invitation from Captain 
Evans to sail upon the frigate Saratoga, and I don't 
believe I shall ever have money enough to go to Europe 
in any other way; besides, I hear that the vessel is to 
visit the majority of the northern ports of the Mediter- 
ranean, and I feel that much valuable professional in- 
formation can be obtained." He said, "What do you 
want ? I will give you leave of absence. " " Oh, no ! " 
said I, "I don't want that." "Why?" asked General 
Sherman. "Because that puts me on half pay. I 
should like to have an order to go." "No, you don't," 
said he; ''you want mileage." General Sherman was 
right, but I did n't like to put it as plainly as that. 
He said, "I wish you would embody those remarks 
about professional information in a letter. ' ' I thought 
it over for a long time, and have not yet given General 
Sherman that letter. 

It is no use talking about it, there is a bond between 
the army and the navy which, when we get into a 



WALLACE F. RANDOLPH 299 

tight place, we must acknowledge. When we want to 
make a landing we must be covered, and if it is a dan- 
gerous landing it must be made safe. They did this 
for us in Cuba, and after we got ashore the safety 
ceased. The landing was all right, and for a mile or 
two the beautiful tropical verdure of Cuba was all 
that had been represented, and more. As long as the 
skies were blue and the sun was yellow it was all 
right. As long as we did not find what we went to 
find it was beautiful; but the very moment that we 
got up on those hills and some vile Dago discovered 
our presence and announced it by shooting an officer 
of the First Cavalry, the beautiful aspect disappeared. 
The shot pierced him through his liver and his spleen 
and his kidneys and his backbone. Then we felt that 
they were no longer unaware of our presence. It 
went on that way; they grew ''wusser and wusser." 
Finally there came the ruction which has appeared in 
the papers, and all that sort of thing. Then there 
came one of those drizzles, every drop of which was as 
big as a water-bucket, and it continued to drizzle all 
night and all the next day, and it did n't stop for 
four more days and nights; and when I tell you, gen- 
tlemen, that it took me twenty-four hours to take two 
caissons, with ten horses to each one, a little over three 
miles, you may imagine what the difficulties were. We 
did n't have a nice time then, and I have n't found 
anybody who has the hardihood to say that we did. 
After that the fever began, and Delmonico's seemed 
more than a million miles away, and the only fellow 
that did n't complain of hardtack was the man who 
had a cracker in his trousers and had fallen into the 



300 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

river. If we did n't shake with fear we did with 
ague, and when we were not cold with the rain we 
were boiling hot with the fever. 

But we always felt that we had friends on the out- 
side. They tell me persons in the Tombs are affected 
with that same feeling. And certainly, while we 
were not in the Tombs, we were on the verge of the 
grave very often. It was a most beautiful sight for a 
while. It was more so after the surrender. There 
are few of you here who can appreciate the conditions 
down there. They were simply these : The fever, which 
is due to the heat, was beyond anything that I ever 
knew in my life. During the Civil War I had chills 
and fever. I was sitting out there and they remarked 
how well I was looking for a man of my physique and 
habits, and how well I stood the racket there. I saw 
them drinking boiled water and eating hardtack and 
bacon, and they were gradually getting to look like the 
inside of a cantaloup, and they got as seedy also, and 
the first thing I knew they were shaking, and they 
asked me what I thought of the situation. I was play- 
ing the strong man until, one dreadful evening, I too 
was taken with the ''shiver de freeze." As you cannot 
break up the habits of a lifetime in a minute, I drank 
some brandy and took some quinine, with the result 
that I had no fever whatever; but I broke out and 
sweated like a nigger under oath in a court. The next 
morning I had no more legs than a mermaid. So I 
took great care of myself for three or four days— an 
unusual circumstance— and I was all right again. The 
next time I came down for about seventeen days. 

Now, as they say, peace has its victories as well as 



WALLACE F. RANDOLPH 301 

war. While the navy people were pounding guns we 
were chewing quinine ; and I tell you one thing, when- 
ever we heard one of those old explosions from the 
outside we felt that they were with us. The louder 
they got, the more we thought they were with us ; and, 
what is more, we would have given our eye-teeth to 
be with them. You know not even a naval surgeon 
has ever been able to discover malaria on the ocean 
blue, and they had distilled water, too. They had their 
own condensing plants, and I understand they even in- 
dulged in eggs, fresh meat, or something of that kind. 
What is more, I have heard that it is against the navy 
regulations to dig a sink on a vessel. 

Now, gentlemen, I will be more merciful than your 
president, who called on me to make a few remarks. 
I know that this prolonged agony can only result in 
dissolution after a while, and I see so many gentlemen 
who have the habit of giving pleasure to their friends, 
that I won't detain you any further than to thank you 
for the pleasure and the honor which you have given 
to me by calling me to be with Admiral Schley to- 
night, and to be the guest of your most hospitable club. 



EGBERT e. INdERSOLL 

AT THE DINNER TO REAR-ADMIRAL SCHLEY, 
NOVEMBER 26, 1898 

I CONGRATULATE all of you to-night, and I con- 
gratulate myself, and I will tell you why. In the 
first place, we were all well born, and we were all born 
rich. We belong to a great race. That is something; 
that is having a start, to feel that in your veins flows 
heroic blood— blood that has accomplished great things 
and has planted the flag of victory on the field of war. 
It is a great thing to belong to a great race. 

I congratulate you and myself on another thing— 
we were born in a great nation. You can't be much 
of a man without having a nation behind you, with 
you. Just think about it! What would Shakespeare 
have been if he had been born in Labrador? I used 
to know an old lawyer in southern Illinois, a smart old 
chap, who used to mourn his unfortunate surround- 
ings. He lived in Pinckneyville, and sometimes he 
drank a little too freely of Illinois wine, and when in 
his cups he sometimes grew philosophic and egotistical. 
He said one day, *'Boys, I have got more brains than 
you have— I have, but I never had a chance. I want 
you to just think of it. What would Daniel Webster 
have been if he had settled in Pinckneyville ? ' ' 

So I congratulate you all that you were born in a 
302 



Robert G. Ingersoll 



ROBERT G. INGERSOLL 303 

great nation, born rich. And why do I say rich ? Be- 
cause you fell heirs to a great, expressive, flexible lan- 
guage; that is one thing. What could a man do who 
speaks a poor language— a language of a few words 
that you could almost count on your fingers? What 
could he do? You were born heirs to a great litera- 
ture—the greatest in the world— in all the world. All 
the literature of Greece and Rome would not make one 
act of "Hamlet." All the literature of the ancient 
world added to all of the modern world, except Eng- 
land, would not equal the literature that we have. We 
were born to it, heirs to that vast intellectual pos- 
session. 

So I say you were all born rich— all. And then you 
were very fortunate in being born in this country, 
where people have some rights— not as many as they 
should have, not as many as they would have if it 
were not for the preachers, maybe, but where we have 
some— and no man yet ever was great unless a great 
drama was being played on some great stage and he 
got a part. Nature deals you a hand, and all she 
asks is for you to have the sense to play it. If no 
hand is dealt to you, you win no money. You must 
have the opportunity, must be on the stage, and some 
great drama must be there. Take it in our own coun- 
try. The Revolutionary War was a drama, and a few 
great actors appeared; the War of 1812 was another, 
and a few appeared; the Civil War another. Where 
would have been the heroes whose brows we have 
crowned with laurel had there been no Civil War? 
What would have become of Lincoln, a lawyer in a 
country town? What would have become of Grant? 



304 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

He would have been covered over with the mantle of 
absolute obscurity, tucked in at all the edges, his name 
never heard of by any human being not related to him. 

Now, you have got to have the chance, and you can- 
not create it. I heard a gentleman say here a few mo- 
ments ago that this war could have been averted. That 
is not true. I am not doubting his veracity, but rather 
his philosophy. Nothing ever happened beneath the 
dome of heaven that could have been avoided. Every- 
thing that is possible happens. That may not suit all 
the creeds, but it is true. And everything that is pos- 
sible will continue to happen. The war could not have 
been averted, and the thing that makes me glad and 
proud is that it was not averted. I will tell you why. 
It was the first war in the history of this world that 
was waged unselfishly for the good of others— the 
first war. Almost anybody will fight for himself; a 
great many people will fight for their country, their 
fellow-men, their fellow- citizens ; but it requires some- 
thing besides courage to fight for the rights of aliens— 
it requires not only courage, but principle and the 
highest morality. This war was waged to compel 
Spain to take her bloody hands from the throat of 
Cuba. That is exactly what it was waged for. An- 
other great drama was put upon the boards, another 
play was advertised, and the actors had their oppor- 
tunity. Had there been no such war, many of the 
actors we never should have heard of. 

But the thing is to take advantage of the occasion 
when it arrives. In this war we added to the great- 
ness and the glory of our history. That is another 
thing that we all fell heirs to— the history of our peo- 



ROBERT G. INGERSOLL 305 

pie, the history of our nation. We fell heirs to all 
the great and grand things that had been accomplished, 
to all the great deeds, to the splendid achievements 
either in the realm of mind or on the field of battle. 

Then there was another great drama. The first thing 
we knew, a man in the far Pacific, a gentleman from 
Vermont, sailed one May morning into the bay of Ma- 
nila, and the next news was that the Spanish fleet had 
been beached, burned, destroyed, and nothing had hap- 
pened to him. I have read a little history, not much, 
and a good deal that I have read was not true. I have 
read something of our own navy, not much. I recollect, 
when I was a small boy, my hero was Paul Jones— he 
covered the ocean— and afterward I knew of Hull, and 
Perry and Decatur and Bainbridge, and a good many 
others that I don't remember now. And then came 
the Civil War, and I remember a little about Farragut, 
a great admiral— as great as ever trod a deck, in my 
judgment. And I have also read about the admirals 
and the sailors all over the world. I knew something of 
Drake, and I have read the life of Nelson and several 
other sea dogs ; but when I got the news from Manila 
I said, ** There is the most wonderful victory ever won 
on the sea," and I did n't think it ever would be 
paralleled. I thought such things came one in a box. 
But a little while afterward another of Spain's fleets 
was heard from. Oh, those Spaniards! They have 
got the courage of passion, but that is not the highest 
courage. They have got plenty of that ; but it is neces- 
sary to be cool, courageous, and to have the brain work- 
ing with the accuracy of an engine— courageous, I 
don't care how mad you get, but there must not be a 

20 



306 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

cloud in the heaven of your judgment. That is Anglo- 
Saxon courage, and there is no higher type. The 
Spaniards sprinkled the holy water on their guns, then 
banged away, and left it to the Holy Ghost to direct 
the rest. 

Another fleet, at Santiago, ventured out one day, and 
another great victory was won by the American navy. 
I don't know which victory was the more wonderful, 
that at Manila Bay or that at Santiago. The Spanish 
ships were, some of them, of the best class and type, 
and had fine guns, yet in a few moments they were 
wrecks on the shore of defeat, gone, lost. 

Admiral Schley has added not only to our wealth, 
but to the wealth of the children yet unborn that are 
going to come into the great heritage not only of 
wealth, but of the highest possible riches, glory, honor, 
achievement. That is the reason I congratulate all of 
you to-night. And I congratulate you on another 
thing, that this country has entered upon the great 
highway, I believe, of progress. I believe that. This 
great nation has the sentiment, the feeling of growth. 
The successful farmer wants to buy the land adjoining 
him ; the great nation loves to see its territory increase. 
And what has been our history? Why, when we 
bought Louisiana from Napoleon, in 1803, thousands 
of people were opposed to ** imperialism," to expan- 
sion — those poor old moss-backs were opposed to it. 
When we bought Florida it was the same. When we 
took the vast West from Mexico in 1848 it was the 
same. When we took Alaska it was the same. Now is 
anybody in favor of giving away any of those pos- 
sessions ? 



ROBERT G. INGERSOLL 307 

We have annexed Hawaii, and we have got the big- 
gest volcano in the business. A man I know visited 
that volcano some years ago, and came back and told 
me about his visit. He said that at the little hotel 
there they had a guest-book in which the people wrote 
their feelings on seeing the volcano in action. ^ ' Now, ' ' 
he said, ''I will tell you this so that you may know 
how you are spreading out yourself. One man 
had written in that book, ^If Bob IngersoU were 
here I think he would change his notion about 
hell.' " 

I want that volcano— I want the Philippines. It 
would be simply infamous to hand those people back to 
the brutality of Spain. Spain has been Christianiz- 
ing them for about four hundred years. The first 
thing the poor devils did was to sign a petition for 
the expulsion of the priests. That was their idea of 
the commencement of liberty. They are not quite as 
savage as some people imagine. I want those islands; 
I want all of them, and I don't know that I disagree 
with the Rev. Mr. Slicer as to the use we can put 
them to. I don't know that they will be of any use, but 
I want them; they might come handy. And I wanted 
to pick up the small change, the Ladrones and the 
Carolines. I am glad we have got Porto Rico. I don't 
know that it will be of any use, but there 's no harm in 
having the title. I want Cuba whenever Cuba wants 
us, and I favor the idea of getting her in the notion 
of wanting us. I want it in the interest, as I believe, 
of humanity, of progress— in other words, of human 
liberty. That is what the war was waged for, and the 
fact that it was waged for that gives an additional glory 



308 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

to these naval officers and to the officers in the army. 
They fought in the first righteous war— I mean right- 
eous in the sense that they fought for the liberty of 
others. I congratulate you that you belong to this 
race, to this nation, and that you are equal heirs in 
the glory of the great Republic. 



WHITELAW REID^ 

AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, FEBRUARY 11, 1899 

I CANNOT express, and I shall not attempt to ex- 
press, the emotions with which I have been filled by 
this kindly welcome, by these too generous words, by 
the sight of all these friends, and the associations 
of the past score of years, which have come back with 
a rush as I sat at this table and listened to this ad- 
dress. It would be idle, however, to assume that the 
greeting of the dear old club is due entirely or mainly to 
the old cause— that constant good will, which followed 
me during the fourteen years of presidency here, with 
which you honored me, and ever since. The present 
occasion has obviously more than merely a personal 
meaning. 

It was my good fortune, through the friendly par- 
tiality of the President of the United States, to be 
associated in a great work, at a foreign capital, in 
which you took a patriotic interest, and over the rati- 
fication of which you use this means of expressing 
your satisfaction. It was a happy thing for us to be 
able to bring back peace to our own land, and a hap- 
pier one to find that our treaty is accepted by the 
Senate and the people as one that guards the honor 

1 This speech was the first public utterance by any one of the Peace 
Commissioners after the ra,tification of the treaty. 
20* 309 



310 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

and protects the interests of the country. Only so 
should a nation like ours make peace at all. 

" Come Peace, not like a mourner bowed 
For honor lost and dear ones wasted ', 
But proud, to meet a people proud, 
With eyes that tell of triumph tasted. " 

I shall make no apology— now that the Senate has 
unsealed our lips— for speaking briefly of this work 
just happily completed. 

The only complaint one hears about it is that y/e 
did our duty too well— that, in fact, we made peace on 
terms too favorable to our own country. In all the 
pending discussion there seems to be no other fault 
found. On no other point is the treaty said by any 
one to be seriously defective. 

It loyally carried out the attitude of Congress as to 
Cuba. It enforced the renunciation of Spanish sover- 
eignty there, but, in spite of the most earnest Spanish 
efforts, it refused to accept American sovereignty. It 
loaded neither ourselves nor the Cubans with the so- 
called Cuban debts, incurred by Spain in the efforts 
to subdue them. It involved us in no complications, 
either in the West Indies or in the East, as to contracts 
or claims or religious establishments. It dealt liber- 
ally with a fallen foe, giving him a generous lump sum 
that more than covered any legitimate debts or expen- 
ditures for pacific improvements ; assuming the burden 
of just claims against him by our own people; carry- 
ing back the armies surrendered on the other side of 
the world at our own cost; returning their arms; even 



WHITELAW REID 311 

restoring them their artillery, including heavy ord- 
nance in field fortifications, munitions of war, and the 
very cattle that dragged their caissons. It secured 
alike for Cubans and Filipinos the release of political 
prisoners. It scrupulously reserved for Congress the 
power of determining the political status of the in- 
habitants of our new possessions. It declared on be- 
half of the most protectionist country in the world for 
the policy of the open door within the Asiatic sphere 
of its influence. 

"With all this the Senate and the country seemed 
content. But the treaty refused to return to Spanish 
rule one foot of territory over which that rule had 
been broken by the triumphs of our arms. 

Were we to be reproached for that? Should the 
Senate have told us, ''You overdid this business; you 
looked after the interests of your own country too thor- 
oughly. You ought to have abandoned the great ar- 
chipelago which the fortunes of war had placed at 
your country's disposal. You are not exactly unfaith- 
ful servants; you are too blindly, unswervingly faith- 
ful. You have n't seized an opportunity to run away 
from some distant results of the war into which Con- 
gress plunged the country before dreaming how far it 
might spread. You have n't dodged for us the re- 
sponsibilities we incurred." 

That is true. When Admiral Dewey sunk the Span- 
ish fleet, and General Merritt captured the Spanish 
army that alone maintained the Spanish hold on the 
Philippines, the Spanish power there was gone; and 
the civilization and the common-sense and the Chris- 
tianity of the world looked to the power that sue- 



312 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

ceeded it to accept its responsibilities. So we took the 
Philippines. How could men representing this coun- 
try, jealous of its honor, or with an adequate compre- 
hension either of its duty or its rights, do otherwise? 

A nation at war over a disputed boundary or some 
other material interest might properly stop when that 
interest was secured, and give back to the enemy all 
else that had been taken from him. But this was not 
a war for any material interest. It was a war to put 
down a rule over an alien people, which we declared 
so wicked and barbarous that we could no longer tol- 
erate it. How could we consent to secure peace, after 
we had broken down this wicked and barbarous rule in 
two archipelagos, by agreeing that one of them should 
be forced back under it? 

There was certainly another alternative. After de- 
stroying the only organized government in the archi- 
pelago, the only security for life and property, native 
and foreign, in great commercial centers like Manila, 
Iloilo, and Cebu, against hordes of uncivilized pagans 
and Mohammedan Malays, should we then scuttle out 
and leave them to their fate? A band of old-time 
Norse pirates, used to swooping down on a capital, 
capturing its rulers, seizing its treasure, burning the 
town, abandoning the people to domestic disorder and 
foreign spoliation, and promptly sailing off for another 
piratical foray— a band of pirates, used to that sort of 
thing, might, no doubt, have left Manila to be sacked 
by the insurgents, while it fled from the Philippines. 
We did not think a self-respecting, civilized, respon- 
sible Christian power could. 

There was another side to it. In a conflict to which 



WHITELAW REID 313 

fifty years of steadily increasing provocation had 
driven us we had lost two hundred and sixty-six sail- 
ors, treacherously murdered on the Maine, had lost at 
Santiago and elsewhere uncounted victims of Spanish 
guns and tropical climates, and had spent in this war 
over $240,000,000, without counting the pensions that 
must still accrue under laws existing when it began. 
Where was the indemnity which under such circum- 
stances it is the duty of the victorious nation to exact, 
not only in its own interest, but in the interest of a 
Christian civilization and the tendencies of modern 
international law, which require that a nation provok- 
ing unjust war shall smart for it, not merely while it 
lasts, but by paying the cost when it is ended? Spain 
had no money even to pay her own soldiers. No in- 
demnity was possible, save in territory. Well, we once 
wanted to buy Cuba, before it had been desolated by 
twelve years of war and decimated by the barbarism 
of Weyler; yet our uttermost offer for it, our highest 
valuation even then, was $125,000,000— less than half 
the cost of our war. But now we were precluded from 
taking Cuba. Porto Rico, immeasurably less impor- 
tant to us, and eight hundred miles further away from 
our coast, is only one twelfth the size of Cuba. Were 
the representatives of the United States, charged with 
the duty of protecting not only its honor, but its in- 
terests, in arranging terms of peace, to content them- 
selves mth little Porto Rico away off, a third of the 
way to Spain, plus the petty reef of Guam, in the mid- 
dle of the Pacific, as indemnity for an unprovoked 
war that had cost and was to cost their country 
$300,000,000? 



314 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

But, some one exclaims, the Philippines are already 
giving us more trouble than they are worth. It is 
natural to say so just now, and it is partly true. 
What they are worth and likely to be worth to this 
country in the race for commercial supremacy on the 
Pacific, — that is to say for supremacy in the great de- 
velopment of trade in the twentieth century,— is a 
question too large to be so summarily decided, or to be 
entered on at the close of a dinner, and under the 
irritation of a Malay half-breed's folly. But nobody 
ever doubted that they would give us trouble. That is 
the price nations must pay for going to war, even in a 
just cause. I was not one of those who were eager to 
begin this war with Spain; but I protest against any 
attempt to evade our just responsibility in the position 
in which it has left us. We shall have trouble in 
the Philippines. So we shall have trouble in Cuba 
and in Porto Eico. If we dawdle and hesitate, and 
lead them to think we fear them and fear trouble, our 
trouble will be great. If, on the other hand, we grasp 
this nettle danger, if we act promptly, with inexorable 
vigor, and with justice, it may be slight. But the 
graver the crisis the plainer our path. God give us 
the courage to purify our politics and strengthen our 
government to meet these new and grave duties ! 



ST. CLAIR McKELWAY 

AT THE DINNER TO WHITELAW REID, FEBRUARY 11, 1899 

I HAVE a voice which can be relied on to empty 
the largest hall in either city, but to-night it is 
with difficulty that, either with eyes or tongue, I can 
get onto your curves. In front of me is the original 
territory of the Lotos Club. On my right are the 
colonial acquisitions. If I desired to speak upon the 
present, in its aspects of peace, I should but supplement 
what a man of the study or of the sanctum has said. If 
I should forecast the future and sprinkle the front of 
it with blood, I should supplement what an apostle of 
''Peace on earth and good will to men" has said. I 
shall therefore adhere to neither rule. On an occasion 
like this mechanical aid to the memory should not be 
neglected. If I tell off on my fingers the words, ''Lotos 
Club," "newspaper dinners," "Minister to France," 
"candidate for Vice-President," "special envoy to 
Great Britain," "Peace Commissioner," and "The 
New- York Tribune, ' ' my speech is at my fingers ' ends, 
and the rest is mere and sheer amplification. 

Now, I always speak at dinners to newspaper men in 
the Lotos Club. I notice then that you honor them in 
succession, and that is because the problem of getting 
them all at once into a room would be so difficult that 

315 



316 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

the effort to make them all keep the peace at the same 
time at the same table would become impossible. 

Now I, by a side-borough environment, am entirely 
too minor and have been too long in this business to 
form enmities. Consequently, I come to you in the 
double character of the metaphorical olive branch, and 
as a possible substitute for a policeman ; and no news- 
paper man's dinner of the Lotos Club is complete with- 
out me. This is not my thought. It is the thought of 
John Elderkin and Chester Lord. If they deny it, the 
truth is not in them, and that absolution of Dr. Mac- 
Arthur which has the certainty of human endorsement 
and the possibility of divine favor will be denied to 
them. 

I was here at the dinner to Sir Edwin Arnold of 
Japan and of the ' ' London Telegraph. ' ' He left behind 
him the original manuscript of a poem which is to be 
found in full in the archives of the Lotos Club. It 
describes what Mme. Bernhardt calls ''the pathetic 
story of Mme. Potiphair and les miserable Jo-seph!" 
It was written not necessarily for publication, but as a 
guarantee of good faith. I was here at the dinner to 
Murat Halstead, occasionally of Cuba, not infrequently 
of the "Journal," and traditionally of Brooklyn and 
of the ' ' Standard Union. ' ' I was here at a memorable 
dinner to Charles A. Dana, the Nestor of our pro- 
fession, the most vigorous and the most versatile and 
the most stimulating of all newspaper men, and easily 
the most sardonic being that the profession has ever had. 

This brings me in stately procession to the guest of 
the evening. I was here at the dinner to Mr. Reid on 
his return from France. I was at the Ohio Society 



ST. CLAIR McKELWAY 317 

dinner at which they similarly honored him. At that 
table sat Mark Hanna, William L. Strong, the late 
Calvin S. Brice, and Mr. Reid, as well as then plain 
William McKinley. I predicted for all of them dis- 
tinction, the distinction which the action of a party 
from which I sincerely differ, but for most of the can- 
didates of which I have had to vote of late years, 
would bestow upon them. I did not predict that be- 
cause of their Ohioism, but because of their meekness. 
''The meek shall inherit the earth." The Ohio man 
asks no more. 

But in what character do we welcome our guest to- 
night? Recognition of his presidency of the Lotos 
Club has gone to the limit. How you kept him for four- 
teen years is one of the Eleusinian mysteries, and will 
be without parallel in the world until his successor, Mr. 
Lawrence, exceeds his limit. It is not in his character 
as Minister to France, because that has been duly and 
appropriately honored. We all of us regret that his ef- 
fort to negotiate the entrance of the American hog into 
France did not secure the permanent exclusion of that 
animal from vehicles of conveyance in Manhattan. 
Nor is this occasion a tribute to the late Vice-Presi- 
dential nomination, great as that honor was. Nor is 
it a tribute to the position of Special Envoy and Am- 
bassador to Great Britain on the occasion of the jubilee, 
plus ten years, of Queen Victoria. But then and there 
and in Paris were laid the foundations of knowledge, 
were presented the lessons of opportunity which were 
duly improved and which made him a forceful factor 
in the latest but not the last honor that befell him— 
membership of the Commission of Peace. 



318 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

I wish to extend the development of the subject upon 
which Mr. Eeid has enlarged. I wish to say that be- 
fore he was appointed commissioner, and when he did 
not know that he would be appointed, he wrote out 
and "The Century Magazine" published a conclusive 
argument, to my mind, that we should and would ac- 
quire the Philippines, and acquire all of them. He was 
appointed on that commission by the prescience of the 
President of the United States. He was a minority of 
one against four upon that proposition. I do not say 
that he converted his colleagues to his view; I do say 
that all of them, in the eventual result, sided with him, 
probably from their experience with the Spanish com- 
missioners themselves, probably from their study of 
the situation under the favoring perspective of foreign 
distance, possibly because they saw that any other solu- 
tion would be unjust to Spain herself, unfair to the 
United States, and perilous to the peace of the world. 
Anyway, what was written was written, and what was 
written was published, and, gentlemen, the brief of 
your guest to-night in the periodical to which I refer 
became the case of his country in the tribunal in which, 
with his distinguished colleagues, he well represented 
our nation. 

Gentlemen, I am among those who believe that we 
should have taken, as we did take, all the Philippines. 
The reasons advanced by Mr. Reid are, to me, an ade- 
quate justification for that opinion. I think that we 
went there, as John Hay said on a certain occasion 
and in view of another subject, ''under the imposition 
of unseen hands." I think we went there as the con- 
stables of humanity and commerce and civilization. 
I think we went there under that almost holy trinity of 



ST. CLAIR McKELWAY 319 

transforming forces, and I believe that the end will 
vindicate the work. 

The peculiar honor of Whitelaw Reid will be that he 
was always sufficient unto all the things that have been 
assigned to him by his government or that have been 
assigned to him in the trusts of the profession which he 
adorns and strengthens. He has always stood for fair 
play in politics. He has always kept on the clean side of 
issues within his own party. He has always avoided 
all avoidable controversies in his profession. He sig- 
nalized his advent here by a statement that the '* Tri- 
bune" was through with editing other papers than 
itself; that he was not holding controversies on per- 
sonal grounds with his contemporaries; that he would 
not open a quarrel in the columns of his journal against 
any antagonist under the impression that personal 
abuse of others was of interest to a self-respecting con- 
stituency. And I to-night, as a newspaper man speak- 
ing to him, a newspaper man, confess my obligation to 
that initial utterance. When it was made I was earn- 
ing an uncomfortably small salary in fighting the bat- 
tles of men whose feuds I had not made, to w^hose quar- 
rels I had no relation, and on whose account it ought 
to have been unnecessary for me to engage in warfare. 
It occurred to me that journalism had a larger pur- 
pose, that it would have a nobler and broader outlook, 
that it would have more respectability and more sol- 
vency in the world if it, in the first instance, were 
divorced from personalities, and, in the second in- 
stance, from servile party control, and were placed in 
sympathy with the best influences in both parties, so 
that the country might suffer no evil by the success of 
either. 



CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 

AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, MARCH 11, 1899 

(Upon Ms election to the Senate of the United States.) 

I DO not know whether it is better for a man to 
achieve fame or to have fame frescoed upon him 
by the eloquent words of the president of this club. 
A man would be insensible to ambition, to its results 
and its gratifications, if he did not feel proud when his 
fellow- citizens had selected him in their interests for 
a position of great trust and great responsibility. But 
there is about this greeting something beyond that 
which comes from the gratification of having been ap- 
pointed or elected to a great place. 

The situation is illustrated most happily in a per- 
sonal incident— and by your favor this is a personal 
night. Away back ages ago, when I was a youth, 
there came to the old homestead up in Peekskill one 
night the returns of an election in which I had been 
successful as the candidate at the head of the Repub- 
lican ticket for Secretary of State. Within a few 
minutes the old homestead was surrounded by a multi- 
tude of neighbors mth brass bands and banners and 
fireworks. My sturdy old democratic Dutch father 
had been too good a Democrat to vote for me, but he 
was too good a father not to rejoice in the success of 
his son. As a Democrat, he had no words which would 

320 



CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 321 

express his feelings on the occasion, mixed as they 
were, and so he simply threw his arms about his boy 
and wept. Those tears made that night more memora- 
ble, more dear, more tender, more deep in the chords 
that they touched than all the votes that made the event 
possible. And such is true of to-night. 

Some of the great composers of the oratorios which 
have become famous in the operatic world have re- 
vealed the processes of their preparation. One has 
said that his genius could never be moved unless he 
had a cat upon his shoulder; and as we listen to his 
symphonies those of us who have been born in the 
country recognize the orchestra which we have often 
heard upon the backyard fence on a summer's night. 
One of world-wide fame has said that his genius could 
only be stirred at the billiard table, and through his 
symphonies we hear the rattling of the ivory balls. 
Another has said that he could only write his score 
when he was walking in the woods, when he was com- 
muning with nature, and so he has transferred to the 
orchestra, to the tenor, to the soprano, and to the chorus 
the sublime secrets of creation. 

Now, when a man is elected to a place which grati- 
fies his fellow-citizens, when he is a man of many clubs, 
of many associations, of many attachments, he is some- 
thing like these composers in the narrowness or broad- 
ness and in the environment which calls forth the 
world-wide sympathy of the greeting which is extended 
to him. For instance, his political club is wild with 
the enthusiasm of the success of the party and the 
success of a party candidate. But there is a fly in the 
amber. It is that it is necessary for all political clubs 

21 



322 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

and all political parties to have two factions. The fac- 
tion with which the successful gentleman has pre- 
viously acted limit their enthusiasm somewhat because 
he has been too cordial with their enemies, and the 
kickers among the independents recognize that there is 
a distinct flaw in the candidate because of his previous 
associations. Between the two is an arctic circle, and to 
cross it and bring them together requires a genius and a 
warmth which Kane never had when he tried to reach 
the North Pole in his ship, and Nansen never had when 
he tried to cross the Arctic Sea on his sled, and Andree 
never had in his balloon, so far as any one knows. And 
when you come to the social club and they say, ''We 
will extend to you our cordiality and our greeting," 
you find that they cannot do it with unanimity because 
the social club is divided into cliques formed from asso- 
ciations, birth, or fortune. When you come to the 
purely artistic club each man stands in the egotistic 
isolation of himself, which is best illustrated by that 
well-known story of Whistler, according to which a 
man who wished to pay him the greatest compliment 
in the world said : ' * The two greatest portrait painters 
of all ages were Yelasquez and Whistler," and Whis- 
tler immediately asked, ''Why Yelasquez?" 

But if we are to find a party spirit without partisan- 
ship or bigotry, if we are to find art without isolation, 
if we are to find the workaday fellows in the fields or 
professions all upon a common democratic plane, all 
feeling that they are brothers in the same broad spirit 
of humanity which characterizes the association, we 
must look to Bohemia. It is only among the Bohe- 
mians that Democrats are Republicans, that Republi- 



CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 323 

cans are Democrats, that Populists are monopolists, 
and monopolists are Populists. It is only in Bohemia 
that journalists recognize the brotherhood of the craft, 
and that artists recognize the glory of their profession 
without regard to the distinction of the individual, 
whether the art be with the chisel, with the pencil, or 
upon the lyric or upon the dramatic stage. It is that, 
gentlemen, brethren of the Lotos Club, that makes the 
honor which the Lotos confers upon the guest whom it 
distinguishes a recognition without a drawback, a gem 
without a flaw, as that gem of purest ray serene which 
has been plucked from the depth of the ocean and 
is hidden there no longer, and in its luminous rays 
there is the joy of those who give and the ecstasy of 
him who participates. 

New York has been represented in the United States 
Senate in the course of its history, and is represented 
to-day, by men who have been distinguished for their 
eloquence, have been distinguished for their states- 
manship, have been distinguished by their skill as poli- 
ticians, have been distinguished by their ability to leg- 
islate for the benefit of their constituencies, men who 
have conferred great distinction not only upon our 
great commonwealth but upon our country. But none 
of us remembers a United States Senator in the United 
States Senate who represented in his person, in his 
association, in his life, and in his characteristics the 
associations, the life, and the characteristics of that 
which makes up a New-Yorker of this grand old city of 
New York. The New-Yorker is different from any 
other human being of any part of this country or any 
other part of the world. It is very rare, if ever, that 



324 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

he is born here. It is very difficult for a man to be 
born in New York and be a New-Yorker. Somehow or 
other it narrows him. But the genuine New-Yorkers 
have come in that ever-surging crowd who are elbow- 
ing their way through the gates of this great city day 
and night to make their mark, to acquire fortunes, and 
to win their spurs. Many of them fall by the way- 
side and are never heard of. Many of them have 
strength enough to get back to their country home. 
Some of them come here with the pride of success in 
rural neighborhoods and bring in cash all that they 
have accumulated, for the purpose of cleaning out the 
dudes of Wall street. They go back to the places 
where they originated, and spend their lives in philip- 
pics against the sharks of money who hibernate here. 
The men we know have come from the granite hills 
of New England, they have come from rural New York, 
they have come from the farms of the West, they have 
come from the plantations of the South, they have 
come from abroad, with grit enough to get here and 
with energy enough to get on. They have displayed 
the American grit and pluck and faculty which enable 
a man, when once his feet are planted upon our pave- 
ment, to retain a positive foothold, and their brains 
have been sharpened upon the New York curb. Those 
men do not differ in their rural characteristics of ordi- 
nary life from their neighbors in any part of this coun- 
try; they are about the same in the family, in the 
church, and in business. But there the resemblance 
ceases. Beyond that they are the men of the clubs, 
and many of them. They are the men of broad liber- 
ality in politics; they are the men of the theatres and 



CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 325 

the first nights; they are the men of the operas, when 
they are good ; they are the men who are interested in 
all that goes to interest people in a great metropolis— 
in its literature, in its athletics, in everything. They 
are men about town. They are metropolitans and cos- 
mopolitans of this most unique and first of the cities 
of this world. 

Now, after I have been twenty-five years living in 
this life, having these associations, going about this 
town at all times of the day and night in order to be a 
New-Yorker ; living here with no place, no association, 
no environment that does not know me ; if, when I get 
to Washington as a senator and during those six years 
the millions of men and women who make New York 
what it is— the metropolis of this western continent, 
and rapidly becoming the greatest center of thought 
in the world— recognize me as a man whom they know 
and who knows them, then the cup of my senatorial 
happiness will be full. 

And nothing better illustrates the broad catholicity 
of the sentiment which calls us together here to-night, 
and the broad catholicity of the sentiment which has 
made me so happy in my election, than the fact that 
among the guests who are here is one of the statesmen 
of the Democratic party, one of the ablest Democrats 
that the Democracy of this State has ever known, the 
most formidable as well as the most chivalrous of f oes— 
David B. Hill. 

Now, my friends, our politics have been more often 
dull than lively, more often uninteresting than other- 
wise. There were periods in the fifties when there was 
a deadly dullness in American politics, and there were 

21* 



326 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

also deadly dull days from 1880 to 1896. Certainly 
during those times business and the professions offered 
infinitely better incentives and attractions in the way 
of progress and development and the achievement of 
fame than did any position in the public life of the 
United States. In 1896 the acute question of the cur- 
rency and of American credit furnished an incentive 
to American study and American thought. We lifted 
our politics into an interesting period; and the events 
which have occurred during the last year have lifted 
our politics upon a still higher plane of thought and 
upon a still higher plane for the exercise of the best 
qualities of American statesmanship. 

There are two lines of Tennyson which always strike 
me as peculiarly applicable to our American conditions 
and our American life. One is, ''Better fifty years of 
Europe than a cycle of Cathay." The poet laureate 
had in his mind when he wrote that line the splendors 
of the literature of the nineteenth century compared 
with the deadly dullness of Asia and of Africa. But 
that line is peculiarly applicable, Mr. President, to 
American conditions, not on the literary side, but in 
the era of the activities which we have experienced in 
the closing years of the nineteenth century. 

The idea embodied in the other line of Tennyson is 
that we are the heirs of all the ages in the foremost 
files of time. Tennyson had in his thoughts that we 
are the heirs of the literature and the art of the an- 
cients, of the literature and the art of the medieval 
period, the heirs of Bacon, Milton, Dante, and Shake- 
speare. We are the heirs of still more. We are the 
heirs of the conditions which the principles of liberty 
have evolved in this Western Hemisphere. 



CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 327 

Gentlemen of the Lotos Club, if to-night I have been 
tempted to assume a little touch of the senator you will 
forgive me. I have behind me the twenty-five years of 
my membership in this club, and my tender, affection- 
ate, and glorious recollection of the memorable nights 
which have been passed here when we have given our 
entertainments to men of the greatest genius in every 
department of literature and of art from all the world. 



THEODOEE EOOSEYELT 

AT THE DINNER TO CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW, MARCH 11, 1899 

I AM glad to have the chance to be one of those 
who join in honoring Senator Depew to-night. It 
has seemed to me to speak well for our politics that we 
should send to the Senate, in his person, a man who has 
won his place fairly and squarely by years of long 
service in the political arena— service given disinter- 
estedly, because the man deemed that he should give 
expression to the faith that was in him, should fight for 
the principles in which he believed. 

I am glad that we shall have in the Senate a man 
whom we don't have to explain, of whom we don't have 
to say when asked who the man is, "Why, he is the 
senator from New York," instead of saying, "He is 
Chauncey Depew!" And we can all the more count 
upon the political service to which we are entitled from 
our representative at "Washington because he is a man 
who has already won his spurs in the political arena; 
because, gentlemen, though he is a New-Yorker, he is 
even more, for he is an American. 

Now, I am glad that you should have as guests at 
your table to-night with the newly elected senator of 
the State, representatives of one of the two branches 
of a service, the welfare of which should be closest to 
the hearts of all Americans, because no American has 

328 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 329 

any local or pecuniary interest in their welfare— the 
army and the navy. 

As you know, I am an expansionist; and I am an 
expansionist because I believe that this people must 
play the part of a great people; because I believe it 
must do its share in the hard work of the world; be- 
cause I don't think it is good for a nation, any more 
than for an individual, to spend all the time intro- 
spectively in the affairs of its own household merely. 
It will manage them all the better if it has outside 
interests. It must manage those interests from a dou- 
ble standpoint. It is bound to manage them from the 
standpoint of the honor of America and from the 
standpoint of the interests of the people governed. 

Now, we can't do our duty, we can't do the task to 
which we have put our hands, if we don't set about it 
with a sober realization of what the task is. In other 
words, if we don 't have in the national Legislature men 
who remember that greater than any debt that they 
owe to any locality is the debt they owe all America; 
that greater than any one interest is the interest of 
all the people. I have the utmost confidence in our 
people, but I regret to state that I believe that at times 
we slumber. And he is a poor patriot who fails to 
point out where we come short, in order that we may 
remedy the shortcoming. 

Did you see a little item the other day to the effect 
that one of the towns in Alaska had expressed its de- 
sire to shift from under the flag of the United States, 
because it had never been worth while for the people 
of this country to try to give Alaska a really good 
government? I do not know whether the item was 



330 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

true; but we have, as a people, been guilty in the past 
about Alaska. Not another session of Congress should 
go by without our giving to Alaska the kind of gov- 
ernment to which any dependency, colony, territory- 
whatever you choose to call it— is entitled; until we 
have made it an object of pride to an Alaskan to be 
an American, not to wish to become something else. 

Now, why has n't Alaska received the proper govern- 
ment? Because it is in nobody's district. If Alaska 
had been a public building, had been a post-office, there 
would have been fifty congressmen striving to build it 
up ! I thank our good fortune that we have in Senator 
Depew a man who will be sensitive to the honor of the 
flag, will realize what the real interest of America is, 
and will do his part in making it impossible hereafter 
for such a thing to occur as that which has come to 
light concerning that Alaskan town. 

Now, gentlemen, you listened to General Merritt to- 
night, and you heard what many of us knew, that there 
were times in the summer of 1898 when we were within 
measurable distance of a conflict with some foe far more 
formidable than Spain. I earnestly hope that we shall 
have peace for all time with every nation ; but I know, 
as you know, that peace comes to the strong man armed, 
and not to the weakling. Should at any time peace 
be broken, should there be a war five or six years 
hence, every man in the Senate of the United States 
who two weeks ago refused, upon any plea whatsoever, 
to give us the ships to which we were entitled must 
bear his share of responsibility for the danger that may 
come upon us, for the disgrace to which we may be 
exposed. A year ago I was in the Navy Department 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 331 

at the time of the outbreak of war with a power en- 
tirely inferior to us as regards its navy, and I saw 
then the panic into which our coast was thrown by the 
threat of war with Spain. I listened to the deputa- 
tions from city after city all along the coast, who came 
to explain that some warship must be anchored off 
their particular town. I listened to the panic— for 
a panic it was— that found utterance in a nervous 
grasping after so much as the semblance of protection. 
It has all gone off now. People forget its existence. 
It did not have any cause to exist then, but there may 
be genuine cause for such a panic in the future if 
we get into war with some great nation, if we find our- 
selves face to face with an issue where we have either 
to court national disgrace by backing down or to stand 
up and try the wager of battle. It is the duty of every 
patriotic American to see that the United States is 
armed to meet such a crisis, to see that it has a navy 
fit for its work, and to see that it has an army fit for 
its work. 

Last July it was my good fortune to Listen to the 
thunder of General Randolph's guns at Santiago; and 
because General Randolph fought so weU and because 
the men under him fought so well, these guns served 
their purpose. But how do you feel, as Americans, 
for having furnished General Randolph with guns that 
used black powder, which made every gun, immedi- 
ately after its discharge, the target for every Spaniard 
within a mile and a quarter; which left us inferior to 
the most backward nation of Europe (the nation 
against which we were pitted) in the quality of the 
powder used in our guns? Was that creditable to 



^^ 



332 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

Americans as a patriotic and business people ? I think 
not. 

Furthermore, in times past we were economical about 
our gunners, and did n't let them have much target 
practice. We wanted to economize cartridges. This 
great wealthy people could not pay for cartridges to 
be used in training its men to shoot ! Now, Americans 
do make splendid soldiers. They shoot w^ell naturally. 
But they have got to be helped by training, or their 
natural capacity will count for nothing. Go out and 
try the experiment yourself —some of you use the rifle 
—try to reach the target by the light of original reason, 
without practice, and see how far you will get in the 
experiment. Although the regular army men are very 
good men, they are only men after all. You have got 
to give them the right tools, and you have got to give 
them a chance to practise with those tools. We must 
have our navy exercised in fleets, our army exercised 
in great field evolutions as an army. 

We need an army, we need a navy, because we have 
got to work out a great destiny ; and we have a right to 
demand that this country, when it meets its great des- 
tiny, shall be so fitted, so armed, so equipped that it 
can make a record which shall be a source of pride 
to each and every American within its borders. If we 
do not prepare thoroughly in advance we can never 
make such a record, and then shame will cover us, and 
we ourselves, who fail to prepare, will be responsible 
for the shame. 



GEORGE H. DANIELS 

AT THE DINNER TO CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW, MARCH 11, 1899 

IT seems to me a most fitting thing that, after a long 
period of senseless prejudice against men connected 
with transportation lines, the great state of New York 
takes the lead in electing the most prominent railroad 
man upon this continent to the Senate of the United 
States. In doing that, however, we stand side by side 
with the most absolute monarchy on the earth, and 
with the foremost among the nations of Europe. The 
Czar of Russia has for his chosen advisers two railroad 
men. One, Prince Hilkoff, the Imperial Minister of 
Railways of Russia, when a prince and in full posses- 
sion of his title, left his home and came to the United 
States and learned the trade of a mechanical engineer. 
He went back to Russia, passed through all the grades 
of the railroad service, from fireman to the manage- 
ment of the most important railroad in Russia, and 
now he sits in the cabinet of the Czar, the nearest man 
to the youngest monarch on the earth. The other is 
M. De Witte, the Imperial Minister of Finance. Six- 
teen years ago he was a station agent at a small station 
on a Polish railway. These two men are the special 
advisers of the Czar, and when the Russian budget 
was prepared for this year it was seen that the amount 
which the Czar proposed to spend for the extension of 

333 



334 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

their railways was greater than the total amount pro- 
vided for the army and navy together. 

The same week and almost the same day that the 
Legislature of New York elected Chauncey M. Depew 
Senator of the United States the Emperor of Germany 
read from the throne his speech to the German Reich- 
stag, and he asked that body to vote a larger amount 
for the extension of the railways and the canals of Ger- 
many than he did for both the army and navy. You 
will thus see that railways and railway men are coming 
to the front. It may not be amiss in this connection 
to observe that the United States senator we are honor- 
ing to-night is one of the members of the Lotos Club, 
and that from our membership was selected the pres- 
ent ambassador of the United States to France. We 
feel that this club, if called upon, could furnish not 
only a President of the United States, but the entire 
Cabinet and all the foreign ministers; and if this 
should be necessary, and these gentlemen were all ab- 
sent attending to their duties elsewhere, this club could 
still entertain the princes of the earth in a princely 
manner. 



SIR HENEY lEYINa 

AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, OCTOBER 28, 1899 

IT is with no ordinary feeling of pleasure and hap- 
piness that I find myself your guest to-night; and 
it is to me a most inspiring occasion to see these eager 
and noble faces full of such kindness and such regard. 
Since we last met I have had what was for me a new 
experience, an enforced rest ; and I am sure, as Ameri- 
cans, you know— you who never rest— that an enforced 
rest is not always pleasant for a man who likes and 
loves his work. And I rejoice once more to clasp your 
hands, the hands of friends who have been to me so 
stanch and so true. 

I cannot forget what our esteemed chairman has told 
US; I cannot forget that when I first came to your 
country, to these friendly and hospitable shores, in 
1883, it was in your club that I received the first 
stirring welcome to America. Since then some of us 
are a little older, but as I look around this table I 
see signs, extraordinary signs, of unabating vigor. 

Our chairman has touched very closely something 
that was in my heart, and is, I believe, in your hearts. 
Since I first came here there has been a great develop- 
ment of that brotherhood and good will which I be- 
lieve all Englishmen and Americans who understand 
one another as we do have always been anxious to see 

335 



336 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

established between the two nations. If you will allow 
me, gentlemen, I will tell you of a little incident which 
occurred to me in your great navy yard on the Dela- 
ware in 1895. I remember the day very well. The 
yard was closed. It was a general holiday; in fact, it 
was on Christmas morning. I was, I believe, the only 
visitor on that occasion in the yard. The officer in 
charge was sitting on a gun. He told me he was a 
little invalided, and had been left in charge of the 
yard, and he most kindly and courteously asked me 
to share with him his Christmas dinner. Then he very 
kindly and graciously pointed out to me many inter- 
esting objects in the yard. I admired, as one could 
not help admiring, a magnificent battle-ship— I forget 
its name— which was lying on the river. While we 
were talking and I was wondering at her mighty power 
the officer said to me: *'Yes, yes; she is a great crea- 
ture, is n't she?" **Yes," said I, ''she certainly is." 
"And yet," he continued, "I am sorry to say that at 
times even her power has its limits." "Indeed?" 
said L "Its limits? How 's that?" "Well," he 
said, "you know she sometimes has to go long dis- 
tances. She can only go so many miles before she has 
to be coaled, and we can't always coal her." "Oh!" 
said I. "You can't always coal her, eh? But surely 
that 's no limit." "How 's that?" he asked. "I 
think it is." "Oh, no," said L "There ought to be 
no difficulty about that. Why can't we coal together?" 
Well, gentlemen and friends and brothers, perhaps 
we never shall, but it seems to me that it would be no 
unnatural thing if we ever do. Has n't your noble 
hero, Admiral Dewey, given an honored British name 



SIR HENRY IRVING 337 

to that lion cub, which we suppose in England is al- 
ways his inseparable companion? I sincerely hope 
that he will like it just as well when it grows up. Gen- 
tlemen, if I may say so, I believe with all my heart 
that there is a fellow-feeling, now manifested toward 
us and from us to you, respecting the heavy respon- 
sibility which England is now discharging, which, mis- 
judged as it may be in Europe, will not be misjudged 
in America. I do not pretend to be and am in no 
way a politician, but I know this, that when the civil- 
ized world passes judgment upon us, the good opinion 
of your great Republic is the only opinion that we 
shall value. 

Gentlemen, I have no words with which to thank my 
friend, if I may say so, Mr. Lawrence, for his, in your 
behalf, more than affectionate and heart-moving greet- 
ing; and I have no words to thank you for the proof 
which this gathering has given me of your undimmed 
regard, a regard which I feel goes out in a large mea- 
sure to my dear friend Ellen Terry. She shares with 
me the deep satisfaction of renewing our old ties with 
a gracious, most gracious section of the American pub- 
lic, and our hearts are full of gratitude and delight. 
With a grateful remembrance of the loving cup which 
this club presented to me, and which I keep as one of 
the dearest mementoes of good-fellowship with which 
I have been honored in this country— and which my 
boy Laurence wiU possess after me— I can only say, 
with my hand on my heart and my heart covered by 
the two flags which, flown together, insure liberty to 
the human race, God bless you, God bless you, my dear, 
my constant friends, and God bless your great country. 

22 



DAVID H. aEEEE 

AT THE DINNER TO SIR HENRY IRVING, OCTOBER 28, 1899 

WHO shall speak after the king ? It is with great 
regret that I cannot find the words nor com- 
mand the speech to express for yon and myself the sat- 
isfaction that we both have in this memorable occasion. 
I did not know until a moment ago that I was ex- 
pected to say anything, but your president, with his 
characteristic disposition to put people in a 'Ox, in- 
formed me a few moments since that I was expected to 
say something. And yet, after all, there is an appro- 
priateness perhaps in calling upon me to say some- 
thing, not because of what I am in myself— for in that 
respect I am all too unworthy— but because of my office 
as a clergyman it is fitting that I should say an ap- 
proving word of the drama and the stage. 

The religious instinct has always been, historically 
and philosophically, intimately associated with the dra- 
matic instinct. The theatre is as old as civilization. 
When first it appears in civilization it appears in con- 
nection with religion. So it was in classic Greece. So 
it was in continental Europe. So it was in England. 
The first plays were the miracle plays ; the first theatres 
were the churches ; the first performers were the clergy- 
men. By and by the theatre got from the church into 
the churchyard; then it got upon wheels and moved 

338 



DAVID H. GREER 339 

about the country; then the professional actors came, 
and humor and wit and merriment came to lash the 
foibles of folly. But human life is something more 
than a laugh. It has its hates and loves. It has its 
strong passions. It has its deep tragedies; and com- 
edy was merged into tragedy until the histrionic art 
touched aU. the phases and forms of human life and 
blossomed out into its beautiful bloom in the Eliza- 
bethan period. It is an art that has its defects, like 
every art. It is an art which has its noble quali- 
ties. Those noble qualities have more and more been 
coming out, and will continue to come out. Why? be- 
cause the good is always stronger than the evil and the 
bad. It only needs a chance. That is all it asks. Let 
it have room and the good in every art will overcome 
the evil. It is a biological fact, recently brought to 
light, that the ultimate biological germ is composed of 
two parts, of two halves— one the unselfish half, the 
other the selfish half— the good and the bad in con- 
flict and in struggle ; and because the good was stronger 
than the bad the whole upward course of our evolu- 
tion and our civilization has come. 

This noble art, with its noble representatives, than 
whom I venture to say— not speaking in the language 
of exaggerated utterance— there is none nobler than he 
who sits at our table to-night, wdll continue to become 
more and more exalted. It will flourish more and 
more until at last it shall become— I think it is Lord 
Lytton who says something like this— "Not the resort 
of the vicious and the vulgar, but the great and effec- 
tive instrument by means of which the loftiest ideals, 
the most heroic types of character, will be depicted 



340 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

and portrayed to the unfolding and responsive imagi- 
nation of the people." It will reach that point. It 
is hastening toward that consummation, and it will be 
largely due to the genius of one who belongs neither 
to England nor to America, but to the great Anglo- 
Saxon race— the distinguished guest whom we have at 
our board to-night. So far as it in me lies, if not in 
the name of the State, then in the name of the Church 
I welcome Sir Henry Irving to our shores. 



CHAELES WILLIAM STUBBS 

(DEAN OF ELY) 
AT THE DINNER TO SIR HENRY IRVING, OCTOBER 28, 1899 

IN this atmosphere of resistless eloquence and wit 
and humor and good-fellowship and comradeship 
and eulogy, I confess I find myself somewhat embar- 
rassed—embarrassed by the generosity of your kind 
feeling toward me, expressed by your president, but 
embarrassed especially because he has treated me with 
not even that amount of generosity which he extended 
to the gentleman who spoke last, and who needed no 
such generosity. I have not even had the twenty min- 
utes to compose any impromptu humorous remarks. 
What, then, can I do ? I think it was one of your own 
prophets— shall I say one of your own poets?— one of 
the greatest of your literary men, an ambassador to 
England, whom I am always glad to think was a per- 
sonal friend of mine, Mr. James RusseU Lowell, who 
once said that an after-dinner speech should consist 
of an anecdote, a commonplace, and a quotation. Now, 
how can I fulfil those canons of speech to-night? 

As to an anecdote ; I am reminded, partly by the frank 
comradeship of this meeting to-night, and partly, also, 
by the rapidity with which the time is passing by, that 
I am staying with one of the clergy of this city who 
is not very well known to me as yet, although I find 

22* 341 



342 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

that to know almost any American is to love him as a 
friend. I do not, however, quite know how I shall be 
received to-night if I return toward the small hours, 
as would seem to be my prospect. 

That suggests to me an incident which I remember, 
a good many years ago, in my Cambridge life, when I 
was present at a banquet given in the hall of St. Peter 's 
College, Cambridge, in honor of its six hundredth anni- 
versary. There were many speeches and many illus- 
trious members of the college present. I remember 
that it was half -past eleven o'clock at night when Sir 
Edward Eandall, the brother of the judge, was called 
upon to respond to "The Toast of the Applied Sci- 
ences. ' ' He said something of this kind : ' ' Gentlemen, 
I could have conceived of occasions when it would have 
been delightful to me to expatiate upon such a subject, 
but at this hour of the night the only application of 
science that appears to me to be appropriate to the 
moment is the application of the domestic Lucifer to 
the bedroom candle." Whereupon your ambassador, 
Mr. Lowell, with that happy genius, that quick power 
of composition, and that delightful grace which were 
always his own, wrote on the back of his menu and 
tossed across the table these lines : 

'' Oh, brief Sir Edward, 

Who thy wit could catch, 
Hold thee a candle 
Or find thy match ? " 

Now, gentlemen, I feel that after quoting to you 
that incident I must justify the lesson I learned from 
Mr. Lowell by being brief ; but I cannot sit down with- 



CHARLES WILLIAM STUBBS 343 

out saying what a pleasure it has been to me to-night 
to be a guest of this club. It is merely by accident, 
as far as I am concerned, but it has been a delight to 
me to take part in doing honor to our greatest English 
actor. 

It is true, I think, as the Rev. Dr. Greer hinted, that 
the church and the stage have not always been perhaps 
in such close contact as two of their representatives, at 
least, are to-night. I think I have heard that in old 
days, even in America, very few persons attended the 
theatre. I think I was told that at one time in Boston 
a very small number of respectable people were to be 
found at the theatre, and people were persuaded to 
attend the plays only by an ingenious device of a the- 
atrical manager, who painted over the door of his 
theatre the words ** Lecture Room. " I trust those days 
have gone by forever. I know quite well that it is 
true, as Dr. Greer said, that in the old days the stage 
was the child, in one sense, of the church. 

In the last few years, living, as it has been my privi- 
lege to do, in that old city of Ely, and living almost, 
as I feel that I do, in the thirteenth and fourteenth 
centuries, Edward III and some of his contemporaries 
seem to me almost as much my friends as some people 
of the present day. Studying some of the old works 
of the monastery, it was very interesting to come across 
an entry in one of the records of the chamberlain which 
read like this : 



'^ Paid to John Smith of Spaulding for playing 
the character of the Devil in the ' Mystery Play ' 
1/4 1-2, and his keep at the friar's table." 



344 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

Now, gentlemen, I won't detain you mucli longer. I 
am glad, as I have said, to be present here to-night to 
do honor, in some measure, to Sir Henry Irving, and, 
through him, to the drama. It was a great pleasure to 
me to be asked to preach what was called the "Birth- 
day Sermon" in Shakespeare's Church last April; and 
never have I preached with more enthusiasm or with 
a stronger feeling that I was doing honor to my reli- 
gion and my Master than when I was able to hold up, 
as it seems to me, the character of Shakespeare as one 
of the noblest religious interpreters of national life 
and character to the English people. There is one 
thing that always has struck me about the character of 
Shakespeare himself, and it is this: many of you will 
remember that beautiful passage of Ruskin's in which 
he says that Shakespeare in his plays has no heroes, 
only heroines. He points out that in almost every 
play there is a noble woman who saves the situation 
when it appears to have been lost through the folly of 
some man. And Ruskin appears to think that that 
implies that women are nobler, more unselfish, more 
self-sacrificing than it is possible for men to be. I 
confess that that does n't strike me as quite the right 
deduction to draw; but evidently Shakespeare himself 
thought so. It is a remarkable thing that that rever- 
ence for noble womanhood which many a man affects 
to lose in his teens was kept by the man of the world 
par excellence, by the merry-minded Shakespeare, to 
the end of his days. He was always, even at fifty years 
of age, like a lover in his first love when in the pres- 
ence of his heroines. 
You will think that I have got eventually to the third 



CHARLES WILLIAM STUBBS 345 

head of my speech. Anecdote, commonplace, quota- 
tion. Well, what shall the quotation be? To-night 
my heart, as an Englishman, has been much touched 
by the evident cordiality, the evident delight, which 
all Americans seem to feel in that good-fellowship and 
friendship which now, thank God, exist between the 
two nations. As Sir Henry has said, whatever criti- 
cism England may receive during the present war from 
the continental nations, she knows at least that Amer- 
ica gives to her all her sympathy. Gentlemen, war 
must always be a terrible thing. But there are more 
terrible things than war, and I cannot help thinking 
and feeling that Shakespeare was right when he said 
that 

'' Naught shall make us rue 
If England to itself do rest but true." 

True that is, not only to her lower self in the desire 
for greed and national aggrandizement, but true to her 
nobler self as the mother of liberty and righteousness 
and national justice. 



EDWARD C. JAMES 

AT THE DINNER TO SIR HENRY IRVING, OCTOBER 28, 1899 

TO-NIGHT the words of your president have sum- 
moned to my mind, as they have to yours, that 
commanding presence, that genial face, that charming 
voice which filled these rooms with such a spell the 
last time we heard him that we lingered into the small 
hours of the morning to hear the glorious tribute 
which he paid to Admiral Schley. His eloquent voice 
is forever stilled. We never shall take him by the 
hand again. We never shall see that bright illumina- 
tion of the eye that filled our hearts with joy to meet 
him. But the dead die never utterly. They linger in 
the deepest recesses of busy minds and loving hearts, 
to be wakened into life again on some sweet occasion 
when a dear remembrance recalls their past. 

Our friend Colonel Ingersoll has entered into that 
place which he so eloquently termed ^'the windowless 
palace of rest." Those mysteries which puzzled him 
and perplexed his acute and penetrating mind have 
all been solved; and let us believe that it is well for 
him. It is a sweet and a dear office of friendship to 
recall such a man. I had the honor of making him a 
member of this club. I gave him his introduction 
here; and of all the service I have ever been able to 
render to the Lotos Club, with which I am so closely 
identified and which I love so dearly, I feel that I have 

346 



EDWARD C. JAMES 347 

never done anything better than to propose as a mem- 
ber our dear friend, now passed away, Colonel Robert 
G. IngersoU. 

But on this joyous occasion, gentlemen, I would turn 
to subjects which are more near to the purpose of our 
festival. Sir Henry, we welcome you again to-night 
with a glad hand and a loving heart. It is the delight 
of the members of this club to have you with us, and 
I believe that you, sir, are the only man in all this wide 
world who so repeatedly and with so much joy on our 
part has been welcomed as our guest. And in this 
connection let me say to you that, although it is not 
our privilege to welcome here that sweet and gracious 
lady (Ellen Terry) who has added so much splendor 
to your own achievements, I think I voice the senti- 
ments of this club when I ask you to convey to her our 
salutations and our welcome. 

We have attended those intellectual feasts which 
you have spread before us here in our metropolitan 
city with a delighted sense that we learned from you 
the very form and body of the age w^hich you portray, 
that we saw in you the martyred Charles, and that 
with you we faced the buried majesty of Denmark. We 
have wandered with you through the sacred aisles of 
Canterbury, and we have dropped tears as we saw you 
in the glorious part of King Arthur when the terrible 
disaster of his life came upon him, and he exclaimed 
in those pathetic words : ' ' How can I, with Winter in 
my heart, plead with the ruined Summer for its rose ? ' ' 

But you come to us to-night doubly welcome. We 
not only welcome you as our old friend, as the greatest 
living master and portrayer of the dramatic art, but 



348 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

we welcome you as a guest from that dear mother coun- 
try to which our hearts have turned in love and grati- 
tude for her gracious sympathy and magnificent aid 
in the time when we needed her comfort and her power. 
I remember, in those dark days of the summer of 1898, 
when the Spanish fleet was upon our coast, when it was 
questionable whether there would be interference by 
the foreign powers or not, and whether the old royal 
house of Spain could summon to its aid such impe- 
rial intervention as would restrain this Eepublic in 
its purpose regarding the liberation of Cuba. We were 
told that France and Germany and Russia would not 
interfere because Christianity was on our side. Was 
it because of any sense of the justness of our pur- 
pose that those powers were restrained? No. Do you 
ask the answ^er to the question, what held them back? 
Read it in the glorious red standard of England, and 
in the declaration of her purpose to stand by her 
daughter in the West. 

I am reminded now, having read in the daily papers 
of those splendid feats of valor accomplished by the 
English soldiery in the field, such as the charge of the 
Highlanders at Elandslaagte and that magnificent bat- 
tle at Mafeking and the one at Dundee, that if the 
Anglo-Saxon people of this earth stand together the 
cause of human progress and human liberty is secure. 
In stirring verses, written many years ago. Lord Ten- 
nyson, with an almost prophetic mind, looked forward 
to the close of the century and to this situation. 

'^ Gigantic daughter of the West, 

We drink to thee across the flood. 
We love thee most who know thee best j 
For art thou not of British blood 1 



EDWARD C. JAMES 349 

^* Should war's mad blast again be blown, 
Permit not thou the tyrant powers 
To fight thy mother here alone, 
But let thy broadsides roar with ours." 

I must, in conclusion— for if I am to believe the pre- 
cepts of Dean Stubbs, it is necessary that an after- 
dinner speech should always contain a story— refer to 
my first visit to your beautiful village of Stratford. I 
had had as a companion on the ocean steamer a gen- 
tleman whose business in New York was the manufac- 
ture of ornamental iron, and he had given much more 
attention to that subject than to either poetry or the 
drama. He had accompanied me through Scotland 
and England, and was with me in the church at Strat- 
ford when I first stood by that famous stone which con- 
tains that impressive and, I may say, appalling verse : 

^' Good frend for lesus sake forbeare 
To digg the dust encloased heare : 
Blest be ye man yt spares thes stones, 
And curst be he yt moves my bones." 

As I stood there reflecting as well as I was able upon 
what Shakespeare was and that that poor handful of 
dust beneath that stone was all that remained on earth 
of the body of that illustrious man, I heard a tinkling 
sound up in the chancel, and saw that my friend was 
rapping on the chancel rail with the back of his knife. 
"Joe," said I, ''what are you doing up there?" 
''Colonel," said he, "I 'm trying to find out whether 
they cast these things solid or 'holler.' They waste 
enough iron here in England to set a man up in busi- 
ness in New York." 



350 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

I said to him: ''Have n't you any respect for tliis 
place? Don't you know that under this stone lies all 
that was mortal of William Shakespeare ? ' ' 

''Oh, well, that 's all right," said he; ''but just 
because a man happened to write 'Damon and Pythias' 
and 'The Lady of Lyons' it 's no reason why you 
should go crazy over him." 

When I got back to New York I told a literary lady 
this story, and she remarked, with a great deal of seri- 
ousness, that there were some people who had no ap- 
preciation of Shakespeare's plays. 



ANDREW CARNEaiE 

AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, JANUARY 27, 1900 

AMONG the many admirable arrangements whicli 
i\ distinguish, this club I think this must be held as 
one, that the guest of honor is called upon to speak 
after the chairman, and is not compelled to sit and lis- 
ten to those highly eulogistic effusions which men are 
pardoned for delivering after dinner— much to the 
confusion of the embarrassed guest. 

As I sat listening to the chairman I was reminded 
of an incident that happened across the table. It re- 
minded me of that small but powerful body in art 
which holds that, in painting a portrait, the first thing 
to keep in mind by the great artist, such as our fel- 
low-member Mr. Eastman Johnson over there, is to 
make a work of art, and the last thing is to make a 
likeness. I recognize in your distinguished president, 
from the picture he has just painted of me for your 
admiration as a work of art, one of the leaders of that 
small but powerful school. 

You have spoken, sir, of my use of surplus wealth. 
Well, it is a very dangerous subject to touch upon. I 
went the other night to speak to the young men of the 
Baptist Union, at the request of a young multi-mil- 
lionaire, the son of the richest man in the world, who 
has shown that he lives laborious days and spends his 

351 



352 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

time trying to do good to his poorer, and therefore less 
burdened and more fortunate, associates. Well, the 
reporter present took a few of the more striking words 
of my address, and I scarcely recognized myself in 
print the next day. Public speakers have to beware 
of the epigrammatic. The published sketch of my re- 
marks reminds me very forcibly of my portrait as just 
painted by the president. 

The first article that I wrote, under the title of ^'The 
Gospel of Wealth," was republished by the editor of 
the '^Pall Mali" of London. The proprietor of the 
^* North American Review" came to me and said: ''Mr. 
Carnegie, I have the manuscript of that article you 
sent down which you call 'Wealth,' and I have the 
greatest desire to hear the author read it. Will you 
read it?" 

I read it. I think Mrs. Browning has said that 
authors never read their poetry with proper effect. 
This was not poetry; it was good, solid sense. When 
I came to that passage, "Of every thousand dollars 
spent thus in so-called charity, nine hundred of it had 
better be thrown into the sea," he said, "Carnegie, 
make that nine hundred and fifty. ' ' And you will find 
it so fixed in the article. 

I spoke to the Baptist Union upon the use of wealth 
by individuals. I hold that the inert, the hopeless, 
the lazy, drunken men, the professional beggar, the 
alms-taker, should be the care of the State, and not of 
the individual; that they should, being human, be 
housed, fed, clothed, and bathed, and should receive 
proper instruction, but should be isolated and not al- 
lowed to marry. I was soon taught this by my experi- 



Andrew Carnegie 




■^/p/iytt^C /i S^, -^^ 2?<«^^<x»c/.^'3<' 



ANDREW CARNEGIE 353 

ence in this city ; and for the many foolish things I did 
in the name of sacred charity may I be forgiven! I 
distributed charity indiscriminately, to some extent. 
Perhaps the greatest evil I have ever done in my life 
was in that direction. But I soon found that indis- 
criminate charity increased the evil we fain would ex- 
terminate. "We talk of the division of property. Well, 
let the millionaire go down to the slums and say, ' ' Here, 
the distribution of wealth is all wrong; you have not 
got your share. I will distribute among you. ' ' In the 
morning, we will say, he makes his distribution. Let 
him return at night to see the good of his philanthropic 
act. What will he find? Happiness? No; pandemo- 
nium. Let him repeat it day after day until his wealth 
is exhausted. Let him try a month of it, and by that 
time I am sure you would aU feel like saying to him: 
'*Down on your knees, and crawl for pardon! You 
have done more injury in a month than you can do 
good in all your life!" The circle of pauperism is 
increased and widened. The millionaire has not bene- 
fited the swimming tenth that keeps its head proudly 
above water, not those who live self-respecting lives and 
who should be the recipients of this foolish millionaire 's 
gifts. 

I tell you the name philanthropist is a very dubious 
one to bestow upon any man, and I did n't quite like 
it when you applied it to me. The philanthropist is 
generally a man with a great deal more money than 
good sense. I seek not popularity, applause, or anything 
of that kind. I seek not to encourage, to support, to 
sustain the ill-doing, the submerged tenth. My sym- 
pathies go forth to those who help themselves. I have 

23 



354 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

never known a man to make a very great success in 
boosting another up a ladder unless the other man 
did some of the climbing himself. This may seem 
harsh doctrine, perhaps not popular; but I am not 
concerned about popularity; I know I am right. 

Gentlemen, I have been receiving some compliments 
from young engineers of our membership to-night 
about what we have done in the manufacture of steel 
and other things. Well, I wish now just to say that 
1 do not deserve one tithe of the credit that these 
young men seem to attribute to me. I will tell you 
why it was that I struck the right line in that matter. 
I was fortunate enough in early life to travel a great 
deal around the world, and good fortune led me to 
spend a summer in the Highlands of Scotland; and I 
have always gone back. I became acquainted with 
Britain. She was the pioneer. I bought rails in 
Great Britain, and laid down American railways. I 
bought boiler plate. I saw what Britain had done 
and was doing. Of course it was easy for me to see 
what we had to do here. I found the grandest de- 
posits of raw materials in the known world. I found 
the American workmen were the best workmen, the 
most versatile, the most sober, the most intelligent, 
the most placable, the most fair-minded workmen in 
the whole world. And for twenty years I have been 
telling my associates in Britain that one American, 
as a workman, was worth two Britons any day— 
and he is. Then it was an easy matter for me to 
see that this country was growing. I am one of those 
who have never lost faith in the Eepublic; and 
I have n't lost a particle of it yet, either. She has 
gone a little off sometimes in her history, but she 



ANDREW CARNEGIE 355 

has never failed to come back. The result is that this 
is the country that is to supply the world with steel. 
And the nation that supplies the Avorld with steel sup- 
plies it with most other things. Steel is the chief com- 
ponent of most things that you can mention in the name 
of manufactures, from a needle to a ship ; and the na- 
tion that manufactures steel is to manufacture almost 
everything in the world. Mark my words, as has been 
said of the English-speaking race, its home is not to 
be found on the Thames or the Tweed, but on the 
Hudson and the Mississippi; so I say that the home 
of ship-building, the home of the manufacture of all 
kinds of things, from a needle to a ship, is not to be 
found on the Tyne and the Clyde, but on the Atlantic 
coast of the United States. 

You have spoken, sir, of books that I have inflicted 
upon a long-suffering public. Well, I do not deserve 
the compliments you have paid me in regard to my 
writing; but this I do want to say: I have never writ- 
ten a word that I did not believe to be true. I have 
never advocated a cause which I did not believe to be 
right; and I have never hesitated for a moment to 
stand and declare my views, whether they commanded 
general assent or the majority differed entirely from 
them. 

Perhaps these things are out of place here, but I 
think that the most valuable citizen of the Republic is 
not the man who follows public opinion and courts 
publicity, which any man can achieve when the pas- 
sions of war are aroused, but the man who stands up 
when they are all mad and preaches to them the great 
and sacred blessings of peace. 

I thank you, fellow members of the Lotos Club, for 



356 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

the high honor conferred by this complimentary dinner 
and excessively kind reception accorded to me. I have 
not hitherto done much toward deserving this tribute, 
but I am none the less grateful for it. My future I 
shall hope, more than my past, will justify at least in 
some degree the honor now paid by you so generously 
in advance. 



ROBEET STUART MacARTHUR 

AT THE DINNER TO ANDREW CARNEGIE, JANUARY 27, 1900 

I HAVE been greatly instructed by the remarks 
made by President Lawrence, by Mr. Carnegie, and 
by the other two gentlemen who have spoken. I have 
been questioning constantly as to how Andrew Car- 
negie came to be the sort of man he is. He will par- 
don me, I trust, if I touch one element in his life 
which I know is very near to his heart, and is not 
far from my heart. In one respect, at least, I stand 
in very close relations to him, for we both had High- 
land Scotch mothers; and what he is to-day is due in 
no small part to the inspiring influence, lofty instruc- 
tion, and exalted example of that beautiful Highland 
Scotch woman who was his mother. Often when I saw 
Mr. Carnegie and his mother together, and observed 
the light of love in her eyes as she gazed upon him, 
and the wealth of affection with which he responded 
to her maternal regard, I never knew whether I ad- 
mired the mother or the son the more, so beautiful was 
the affection of each toward the other. 

But I want to press a little further the inquiry as 
to how he came to be the man he is. I suppose 
that all musicians will tell us that in every great ora- 
torio there is a diapason, a concordant, dominant, per- 
vasive, and unitive note. Those who study music 
with sufficient intelligence are able to discover the pres- 

23* 357 



358 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

ence of that note, even when it is little heard by the 
ordinary listener to the music. I suppose that, if I 
were sufficient of a musician, I could stand by Niagara 
Falls, listen to its thunderous music, and then write the 
score of the matchless song sung by this glorious choir. 
I suppose that, if I were sufficient of a musician, I 
could stand by a singing, dancing, glancing rill, and 
then write the score of the song which that brook 
is singing. Now, if I enlarge that thought it will 
cover a very wide sphere of life. What is true of the 
oratorio, of Niagara, and of the brook, is true of the 
great nations of the earth ; it is true also of all the great 
periods of time. When we look back in history we 
see that there were three great ruling nations— the 
Roman, the Greek, and the Hebrew— and in the song 
which each nation sang there was the dominant note, 
the pervasive element, the unitive thought, the distinct 
diapason. The Roman stood for law, the Greek for art, 
the Hebrew for religion. The Hebrew had a genius 
for religion. It is a very remarkable fact that these 
three great nations were represented in the three lan- 
guages in which the superscription was written on the 
Cross of the great Master; for that inscription, you 
will remember, was written in Hebrew and Greek and 
Latin. Now, the Romans, standing for law, lacked the 
lofty artistic ideal of the Greek; the Greek, standing 
for art, lacked the marked practicality of the Roman; 
and the Hebrew, standing for religion par excellence, 
lacked, to some degree, the artistic ideal of the Greek 
and the practicality of the Roman: in each case there 
was the distinctive note. 

I am quite sure that if we bring our thought down 
to the study of men, we shall discover in every 



ROBERT STUART MacARTHUR 359 

man's life a nnitive note, a concordant purpose, a 
dominant motive— in a word, a diapason. What is the 
nnitive note, the concordant purpose, the dominant 
motive of the life of Andrew Carnegie? It is this 
dominant motive which has given the unity to his en- 
tire life; which made him heroic when he was a poor 
boy; which made him ambitious with a noble and 
lofty ambition when he was struggling from poverty 
into competence ; and which makes him a large-hearted 
and benevolent citizen, now that he has acquired wealth. 

I quite agree that it is far more difficult to distribute 
money properly than to acquire it. I think all of us 
know that it is a far easier matter for the average 
millionaire to acquire money rapidly than to distribute 
it wisely. In one respect he may succeed, while in the 
other he may fail. I think the one word which gives 
this dominant purpose to the life of Mr. Andrew Car- 
negie is character! character! character! The Greek 
verb from which the word comes means to cut, to 
engrave; character is the resultant of the influences, 
thoughts and acts of life as they have engraved them- 
selves on the soul. Character in Mr. Carnegie's case 
includes such qualities as honesty, industry, economy, 
enterprise, and perseverance. A man's reputation is 
one thing ; his character is quite another. I care very 
little about reputation, as compared with character. 
Reputation is seeming ; character is being. Reputation 
is what men think we are ; character is what God knows 
we are. Reputation is the breath of man ; character is 
the inbreathing of the eternal God. Reputation is 
temporal ; character is eternal. Reputation is acciden- 
tal; character is essential. Character makes the man. 

Now, as I look over history I discover illustrations 



360 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

of the truth of the proposition that I am endeavoring 
to lay down. I have often studied with great interest 
the life of William Pitt. I am an ardent admirer of 
Pitt. He belonged to a remarkable period of British 
history. Pitt, you know, was a delicate boy, not able 
to go to school, as did most other boys of his time and 
social position. But at fourteen, in 1773, he was pre- 
pared for a university career, and went then to Cam- 
bridge. He was even then in varied learning a grown 
man. At seventeen he closed that career with his 
master's degree. For four years after he read Greek 
with his tutor. When he was twenty-one he was the 
finest Creek scholar for his age in all Great Brit- 
ain; and at twenty-one he was also a member of Par- 
liament. How marvelous was Pitt's maiden speech! 
He was speaking to one of Burke's great questions 
of Economical Eeform, and near him sat Fox, who 
was his rival in politics. Near him, also, sat Burke, 
whom he greatly admired and often supported. And 
when Pitt, that beautiful youth of twenty-one, with 
his clear thought and sonorous voice, was making his 
maiden speech and rolling out his magnificent sen- 
tences, Fox leaned over and whispered to Burke that 
he was a chip of the old block ; and Burke replied, * ' He 
is the old block himself ! ' ' Before he was twenty-seven 
he was Prime Minister of Great Britain, and he ruled 
Britain by his voice, his thought, and his character. 
Fox was envious of Pitt's popularity. Dr. Price, in 
1782, in a Fast day sermon, when Fox was confidently 
expecting to be made prime minister, asked: ''Can you 
imagine that a spendthrift in his own concerns will 
make an economist in managing the affairs of others? 
that a wild gamester will take due care of the state of a 



ROBERT STUxiRT MacARTHUR 361 

kingdom?" It was evident that a man who spent his 
nights in drinking and gaming was not to be trusted 
with the high office of Prime Minister of Great Britain. 
It was the lack of character in Fox, as compared 
with Pitt, that made him less popular than the latter. 
You will remember that Pitt said, after the battle of 
Austerlitz: ''You may as well roll up the map of 
Europe; we shall not want it for at least ten years." 
And the battle of Waterloo came in about ten years 
after that time. Pitt died, as Bishop Wilberforce said, 
of the Austerlitz fever. One of the touching couplets 
in Scott's ''Marmion" refers to Pitt and Fox. They 
are buried in Westminster Abbey, so near each other 
that Scott says : 

'' Shed upon Fox's grave the tear; 
'Twill trickle to his rival's bier." 

It is character that tells in the la"v\^er, in the mer- 
chant, in the politician, in the author, as well as in 
the man who stands in the pulpit to preach the gospel 
of God and man. I have often thought, and I thought 
to-night, of that wonderful introduction given to the 
riotous French populace by Lamartine, in 1848, when 
he said, in presenting De la Eure: ''Citizens, listen! 
Sixty years of a pure life are now about to address 
you." And when Mr. Andrew Carnegie stood here to- 
night it was his pure life, his varied ability, and his 
noble character that gave him his power before this 
audience, and before America and the world. 

You remember — I will relieve your patience in a 
moment— the sentence of Emerson when he said: 
"What care I for what you say, when what you do 
stands over my head and thunders so loud that I can- 



362 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

not hear what you say. ' ' It is what men do and what 
men are that will always give them power or the re- 
verse. So behind Mr. Carnegie's book, behind Mr. 
Carnegie's various articles, behind his great gifts, is 
Andrew Carnegie. And it is the man behind the works, 
behind the book, behind the political speech, behind the 
sermon, behind the poem, behind everything ; it is their 
noble manhood which makes men mighty before God 
and among their fellow-men. 

So back of all that Andrew Carnegie has done, gen- 
tlemen, I to-night see the gracious, gentle, queenly 
Highland Scotch mother, the music of whose voice I 
loved to hear, for it was the music that sung me to 
sleep in my cradle from the lips of another Highland 
Scotch mother, and behind all I see that gracious na- 
ture that helped to make Andrew Carnegie. God help 
him and make him a still greater blessing ! I have not 
always had the honor of agreeing with Mr. Carnegie. 
(Turning to Mr. Carnegie.) But you are so sure that 
you are right that it makes little difference to you 
whether others agree with you or not. (Mr. Carnegie : 
*'Yes, sir!") That is one of the things I like about 
Mr. Carnegie. We all may often differ as to policies, 
even when we agree as to principles; but let us re- 
spect one another's motives, even when we cannot agree 
as to one another's methods. Let us go on side by side 
in honesty, patriotism, and love for God and man, 
knowing that truth will triumph. 

^^ For right is right, since God is God, 
And right the day must win ; 
To doubt would be disloyalty. 
To falter would be sin." 



WILLIAM H. Mcelroy 

AT THE DINNER TO ANDREW CARNEGIE, JANUARY 27, 1900 

WHEN Dr. Mac Arthur was telling us the differ- 
ence between reputation and character I re- 
called a story that Edward Everett Hale told me of 
his friends James Freeman Clarke and Starr King. 
They were spending a little time at Pigeon Cove, and 
one day Clarke said to King : ''Do you know the differ- 
ence between you and me?" ''What is it?" asked 
King. ' ' Well, ' ' said Clarke, ' ' you have got reputation, 
and I have got character." "Of course," replied 
King. ' ' You have got a bad character, and I have got 
a good reputation." And then the incident was de- 
clared closed. 

I am greatly tempted to tell a story at the expense 
of my distinguished friend, the president of Columbia 
College. Yes, I believe I will tell it. Some years ago 
I enjoyed the hospitality of this club at a great dinner, 
which we all remember, given to Sir Edwin Arnold. 
President Low, who was then the Mayor of Brooklyn, 
made one of his characteristically graceful and in- 
cisive speeches, in the course of which he said: "Sir 
Edwin Arnold has not only been a poet, but, at a 
certain stage of his career, he was a journalist." 
And then he wickedly added: "I don't know why he 

363 



364 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

should not pursue both of these vocations, since the 
imagination has so much to do with both." After 
him came St. Clair McKelway, and Mr. McKelway, 
bent upon standing up for the honor of his profession, 
said: ''Yes, Mr. Mayor; and if the journalists of 
Brooklyn had n't let their imaginations loose I doubt 
if you ever would have been elected." 

I salute the guest of honor of this high feast. The 
Lotos Club always serves its liquid hospitably in 
magnums. So Mr. Carnegie serves his benefactions. 
Do you suppose that when Leigh Hunt wrote the 
lines upon Abou Ben Adhem he was thinking of some 
concrete Ben Adhem of those days, or was he looking 
down the century, with the prevision of a seer, and 
thinking of Andrew Carnegie? If we cannot find out 
in any other way, let us mandamus ancient history, 
place Abou Ben Adhem beside Mr. Carnegie, and see 
whose name stands the higher in the "Book of Gold." 

Just a word more. Somebody said of Lady Macbeth 
that she might have been a lady, but she could n't 
prove it by her conduct. I love to see a philanthropist, 
like Mr. Carnegie, who can prove his philanthropy by 
his conduct. Somebody has defined philanthropy as 
being Tom's idea that Dick ought to do something for 
Harry. That has never been Mr. Carnegie 's conception 
of the term. He has "put his creed into his deed," 
and his creed has been one of whole-hearted benefi- 
cence. Besides, he not only has given most generously, 
but with a wisdom which goes hand in hand with his 
prodigality. I take it that "our best society" in any 
age is composed of the great souls whose writings in- 
spire, instruct, and entertain, and he who gives a 



WILLIAM H. Mcelroy 365 

library to a community provides it with the best society 
—and a society open to all except those who love dark- 
ness rather than light. Who, bent upon serving his 
fellow-men, can do better than that? 

The other day, if he was reported correctly, he said 
that when he came to shuffle off his mortal coil he ex- 
pected to be a poor man. I say to him to-night that, 
with all his sagacity, he has gone to work in the wrong 
direction to accomplish that object. May the day be 
long distant when he turns his face to the wall; but 
when that day comes he will find that, although he may 
be poor in mere worldly goods, he has largely accumu- 
lated the most precious of riches— the regard and honor 
of humanity, which goes so far to make the valley and 
the shadow vanish and the delectable mountains and 
the perfect day appear. 



WALTEE S. LOGAN 

AT THE DINNER TO ANDREW CARNEGIE, JANUARY 27, 1900 

IF we were to classify mankind, we might differen- 
tiate between one people and another on various 
lines. We might differentiate on the ground of geog- 
raphy, and divide them up according to where they 
live ; but steam and electricity have made geographical 
distances of little importance in modern times, and we 
should not make much progress in that way. We 
might make racial distinctions, but the characteristics 
of race disappear under changed environment. The 
Celt and the Saxon have lived together side by side in 
England for only a few generations, but now you can 
tell the difference between them only by their speech 
and the sound of their names. We might divide them 
up according to their professions or position in life; 
but these all pertain to one generation, and that would 
be unsatisfactory, because the son of the hod-carrier 
may sit in the House of Lords or become president of 
Yale or Harvard. The only logical line of demarca- 
tion is the line of language. 

The rulers of the world to-day are not the Anglo- 
Saxon race, but the English-speaking people of all 
races. The tie that binds us together is not the tie of 
race or blood or institutions, but the tie of a common 
tongue; and the hope of the world is not in race or 

366 



WALTER S. LOGAN 367 

color or blood, but in the language that we speak and 
the people that speak it. 

I would welcome Mr. Carnegie here to-night, then, 
not as an American, for his character is too broad for 
any one country, and the mountain-tops of his native 
land are not high enough to hide him from the rest of 
the world; I would welcome him not as a Scotchman, 
for Scotland is too small for such a man as Mr. Car- 
negie; I would welcome him not as a millionaire, for 
whatever possessions we started with to-night we left 
in the coat-room outside, and here we stand only with 
that character which we have made ourselves ; I would 
welcome him not as an Anglo-Saxon, for I refuse to 
regard racial distinctions ; I would welcome him simply 
as a distinguished member of the English-speaking peo- 
ple, as a man who would have been better known as 
a speaker and writer of that language if his fame as a 
sayer of things had not been cast in the shade by his 
mightier fame as a doer of things. 

At the commencement of the nineteenth century 
English was spoken by less than fifteen million people 
in all the world; now, at its close or at the beginning 
of the next, it is spoken by one hundred and fifty mil- 
lions. At the beginning of the century it stood fifth 
on the list of European languages in the number of 
people that spoke it; to-day it stands first on the list, 
and is fifty millions ahead of the next. At the begin- 
ning of the century laws were made in the English 
language only for the people who spoke it; to-day the 
laws of four hundred millions who never lisped a word 
of English are written in the English language. At the 
beginning of the century our institutions and ideas of 



368 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

government prevailed only in England and America, 
where the language was spoken; at its close one hun- 
dred and fifty millions who do not speak the language 
and whose laws are not written in it have copied our 
constitutions into their language and adapted our insti- 
tutions to their conditions. 

At the beginning of the century our ideas of govern- 
ment and our language prevailed only on a few little 
isles in the North Sea, scarcely larger than a pinhead 
on the map of the world, and on a little fringe of At- 
lantic coast on the seaboard of America. To-day those 
institutions prevail all over the world, and our lan- 
guage is spoken in every continent and inhabited island 
in the world. It has in it the capacity to ingraft every- 
thing that is of value in any language. It is the lan- 
guage of a thoughtful people, and is adapted to ex- 
press thought. If you see a man in Paris or Madrid 
or Eome speak, you can tell by his facial expressions 
and his muscular contortions very nearly what he is 
saying. He has to make up for the deficiency of his 
language by everything else that he has. If you see a 
man in London or New York speak, you have to hear 
the words he is speaking to know what he is talking 
about. Ours is the language of people who have worked 
out their own destiny and who have built the corner- 
stone of their civilization upon the rock of self-re- 
liance. It is the language of liberty and sturdy man- 
hood throughout the world, and, sooner or later— I 
think it won't be very long— it is to be the ruling lan- 
guage of the world. 



FRANK E. LAWRENCE 

AT THE DINNER TO SAMUEL L. CLEMENS (MARK TWAIN), 
NOVEMBER 11, 1893 

[This speech, is placed out of the chronological order. This and the following 
speech are introductory addresses presenting the same guest to the same 
audience at periods seven years apart. The address of Mr. Clemens on 
November 11, 1893, is among the many which were not preserved with 
sufficient fullness for publication.] 

TO-NIGHT the old faces gather amid new surround- 
ings. The place where last we met about the 
table has vanished, and to-night we have our first Lotos 
dinner in a home that is all our own. 

It is peculiarly fitting that the board should now be 
spread in honor of one who has been a member of the 
club for a full score of years, and it is a happy augury 
for the future that our fellow-member whom we assem- 
ble to greet should be the bearer of a most distin- 
guished name in the world of letters, for the Lotos 
Club is ever at its best when paying homage to genius 
in literature or in art. 

Is there a civilized being who has not heard the name 
of Mark Twain ? "We knew him long years ago, before 
he came out of the boundless "West, brimful of wit and 
eloquence, with no reverence for anything, and went 
abroad to educate the untutored European in the sub- 
tleties of the American joke. 

The world has looked on and applauded while he has 



370 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

broken many images. He has led ns in imagination 
all over the globe. With him as our guide, we have 
traversed alike the Mississippi and the Sea of Galilee. 
At his bidding we have laughed at a thousand absur- 
dities. By laborious reasoning he has convinced us 
that the Egyptian mummies are actually dead. He 
has held us spellbound upon the plain at the foot of 
the great Sphinx, and we have joined him in weeping 
bitter tears at the tomb of Adam. 

To-night we greet him in the flesh. 

What name is there in literature that can be likened 
to his? Perhaps some of the distinguished gentlemen 
about this table can tell us. But I know of none. 
'' Himself his only parallel," it seems to me. 

He is all our own— a ripe and perfect product of the 
American soil. In no other country could he have been 
born. By no previous age could he have been appre- 
ciated as he is. We are, one and all, indebted to him 
for many hours of laughter and many moments of more 
serious thought. As he goes forward in that peculiar 
field of literature of which he is the creator, and where 
he is without a rival, we shall give him our applause, 
and we to-night pledge him our kindest wishes for pros- 
perity, happiness, and success. 



FRANK E. LAWEENCE 

AT THE DINNER TO SAMUEL L. CLEMENS (MARK TWAIN), 
NOVEMBER 10, 1900 

OUR Lotos Club season opens very happily, for we 
have just voted ourselves some years of prosper- 
ity, and Mark Twain has come home. When in this 
fortunate country we want good times we get them by 
popular vote. But for the presence of Mark Twain we 
depend upon a more uncertain caprice. 

Seven years ago he returned from abroad, and was 
entertained at dinner by this club, with the result that 
he went straight back to Europe, and has remained 
out of the United States ever since. 

It has been suggested that the club assemble in his 
honor regularly at similar intervals ; but it is felt that, 
after a time, this would become a steady habit, and 
steady habits could never be made popular here. 

We welcome him home as one of the stanchest and 
truest members of the club, and we remember that he 
was one of those who, with Reid and Brougham and 
Florence and Bromley and a score of kindred spirits, 
made the club sparkling and attractive in its early 
days, and laid broad and deep the foundation of all its 
later years of merriment and good-fellowship. 

Our guest became a member of the club when it was 
only three years old, and now that it has seen more 

371 



372 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

than ten times that number of years, he remains faith- 
ful to its principles, or at least he would be faithful 
to its principles if it had any, and that amounts to the 
same thing. The principles might be pernicious, but 
it would n't matter; he would be faithful to them all 
the same. 

Well, he has been away, and he has been gone a 
long time, and I believe he has been around the world, 
and what he has been doing we only know in part. 

He says that he has been "Following the Equator." 
What a fortunate thing it is that he did not, as the 
climax to a somewhat revolutionary career, induce the 
equator to follow him! Had that occurred, the equa- 
tor would probably have passed the remainder of its 
days in Hartford, Connecticut, or some weird or lit- 
erary portion of the globe, and its reputation for con- 
stancy would have been forever blasted. 

Some things about him we do know. We know tha,t 
while away from us he has kept up a steady stream of 
work, furnishing to the world an abundance both of 
instruction and of amusement, and increasing his old 
reputation as one who, while he writes in fun, yet ever 
thinks in earnest. We hail him, as we have done be- 
fore, as a master of letters, as the pioneer in a new 
and original field, as the possessor of a quaint and 
peculiar genius which has discovered unsuspected pos- 
sibilities of language and of thought, and whose works, 
from the earliest to the latest, from the lightest to the 
most serious, have always commanded the widest audi- 
ence and been received the world over with unbounded 
applause. 

We hail him, too, as one who has borne great burdens 



FRANK R. LAWRENCE 373 

with manliness and courage, who has emerged from 
great struggles victorious ; and in welcoming him back 
to-night to his old place, first taken at the Lotos board 
nearly twenty-seven years ago, we greet him with all 
friendship and in all kindliness, and hope that his life 
may be happy and prosperous, whether here or abroad. 



SAMUEL L. CLEMENS 

(MARK TWAIN) 
AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, NOVEMBER 10, 1900 

I THANK you all out of my heart for this fraternal 
welcome, and it seems almost too fine, almost too 
magnificent, for a humble Missourian such as I am, 
far from his native haunts on the banks of the Missis- 
sippi; and yet my modesty is in a degree fortified by 
observing that I am not the only Missourian who has 
been honored here to-night, for I see at this very table 
— here is a Missourian (indicating Mr. McKelway) , and 
there is a Missourian (indicating Mr. Depew), and 
there is another Missourian— and Hendrix and Clem- 
ens, and last but not least, the greatest Missourian of 
them all— here he sits— Tom Eeed, who has always 
concealed his birth until now. And since I have been 
away I know what has been happening in his case ; he 
has deserted politics and now is leading a creditable 
life. He has reformed, and God prosper him; and I 
judge, by a remark which he made up-stairs awhile 
ago, that he has found a new business that is utterly 
suited to his make and constitution, and all he is doing 
now is that he is around raising the average of per- 
sonal beauty. 

But I am grateful to the president for the kind 
words which he has said of me, and it is not for me to 

374 




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SAMUEL L. CLEMENS 375 

say whether these praises were deserved or not. I 
prefer to accept them just as they stand, without con- 
cerning myself with the statistics upon which they 
have been built, but only with that large matter, that 
essential matter, the good-fellowship, the kindliness, 
the magnanimity and generosity that prompted their 
utterance. Well, many things have happened since 
I sat here before, and, now that I think of it, the 
president's reference to the debts which were left 
by the bankrupt firm of Charles L. Webster & Co. 
gives me an opportunity to say a word which I very 
much wish to say, not for myself, but for ninety-five 
men and women whom I shall always hold in high es- 
teem and in pleasant remembrance— the creditors of 
that firm. They treated me well; they treated me 
handsomely. There were ninety-six of them, and by 
not a finger's weight did ninety-five of them add to 
the burden of that time for me. Ninety-five out of 
the ninety-six— they did n't indicate by any word 
or sign that they were anxious about their money. 
They treated me well, and I shall not forget it; I 
could not forget it if I wanted to. Many of them 
said, ''Don't you worry, don't you hurry"; that 's 
what they said. Why, if I could have that kind of 
creditors always, and that experience, I would recog- 
nize it as a personal loss to be out of debt. I owe 
those ninety-five creditors a debt of homage, and I pay 
it now in such measure as one may pay so fine a debt 
in mere words. Yes, they said that very thing. I was 
not personally acquainted with ten of them, and yet 
they said, "Don't you worry, and don't you hurry." 
I know that phrase by heart, and if all the other music 



376 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

should perish out of the world it would still sing to 
me. I appreciate that; I am glad to say this word; 
people say so much about me, and they forget those 
creditors. They were handsomer than I was, or Tom 
Eeed. 

Oh, you have been doing many things in this time 
that I have been absent; you have done lots of things, 
some that are Avell worth remembering, too. Now, we 
have fought a righteous war since I have been gone, 
and that is rare in history— a righteous war is so rare 
that it is almost unknown in history ; but by the grace 
of that war we set Cuba free, and we joined her to 
those three or four free nations that exist on this earth ; 
and we started out to set those poor Filipinos free too, 
and why, why, why that most righteous purpose of ours 
has apparently miscarried I suppose I never shall 
know. 

But we have made a most creditable record in 
China in these days— our sound and level-headed ad- 
ministration has made a most creditable record over 
there, and there are some of the Powers that cannot 
say that by any means. The Yellow Terror is threat- 
ening this world to-day. It is looming vast and 
ominous on that distant horizon ; I do not know what 
is going to be the result of that Yellow Terror, but our 
government has had no hand in evoking it, and let 's 
be happy in that and proud of it. 

We have nursed free silver; we watched by its cra- 
dle ; we have done the best we could to raise that child, 
but those pestiferous Republicans have— well, they keep 
giving it the measles every chance they get, and we 
never shall raise that child. Well, that 's no matter— 



SAMUEL L. CLEMENS 377 

there 's plenty of other things to do, and we must think 
of something else. Well, we have tried a president 
four years, criticized him and found fault with him 
the whole time, and turned around a day or two ago 
and elected him again with votes enough to spare to 
elect another. Oh, consistency ! consistency ! thy name 
—I don't know what thy name is— Thompson will 
do, any name will do, but you see there is the fact; 
there is the consistency. Then we have tried for gov- 
ernor an illustrious Rough Eider, and we liked him so 
much in that great office that now we have made him 
Vice-President; not in order that that office shall give 
him distinction, but that he may confer distinction 
upon the office. And it 's needed, too— it 's needed. 
And now, for a while anyway, we shall not be stam- 
mering and embarrassed when a stranger asks us, 
"What is the name of the Vice-President?" This one 
is known ; this one is pretty well known, pretty widely 
known, and in some quarters favorably. I am not ac- 
customed to dealing in these fulsome compliments, and 
I am probably overdoing it a little; but, well, my old 
affectionate admiration for Governor Roosevelt has 
probably betrayed me into this complimentary excess ; 
but I know him, and you know him; and if you give 
him rope enough— I mean if— oh, yes, he will justify 
that compliment; leave it just as it is. And now we 
have put in his place Mr. Odell, another Rough Rider, 
I suppose ; all the fat things go to that profession now. 
AVhy, I could have been a Rough Rider myself if I had 
known that this political Klondike was going to open 
up, and I would have been a Rough Rider if I could 
have gone to war on an automobile— but not on a horse ! 



378 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

No, I know the horse too well ; I have known the horse 
in war and in peace, and there is no place where a horse 
is comfortable. The horse has too many caprices, and 
he is too much given to initiative. He invents too 
many new ideas; no, I don't want anything to do with 
the horse. 

And then we have taken Chauncey Depew out of a 
useful and active life and made him a senator— em- 
balmed him, corked him up. And I am not grieving. 
That man has said many a true thing about me in his 
time, and I always said something would happen to 
him. Look at that (pointing to Mr. Depew) gilded 
mummy! He has made my life a sorrow to me at 
many a banquet on both sides of the ocean, and now he 
has got it. Perish the hand that pulls that cork ! 

All these things have happened, all of these things have 
come to pass, while I have been away, and it just shows 
how little a Mugwump can be missed in a cold, unfeel- 
ing world, even when he is the last one that is left— a 
Grand Old Party all by himself. And there is another 
thing that has happened, perhaps the most imposing 
event of them all ; the institution called the Daughters 
of the Crown — the Daughters of the Royal Crown — has 
established itself and gone into business. Now, there 's 
an American idea for you; there 's an ideal born of 
God knows what kind of specialized insanity, but not 
softening of the brain— you cannot soften a thing that 
does n't exist— the Daughters of the Royal Crown! 
Nobody eligible but American descendants of Charles 
the Second. Dear me, how the fancy product of that 
old harem still holds out! 

Well, I am truly glad to foregather with you again, 



SAMUEL L. CLEMENS 379 

and partake of the bread and salt of this hospitable 
house once more. Seven years ago, when I was your 
guest here, when I was old and despondent, you gave 
me the grip and the word that lift a man up and make 
him glad to be alive; and now I come back from my 
exile young again, fresh and alive, and ready to begin 
life once more, and your welcome puts the finishing 
touch upon my restored youth and makes it real to me, 
and not a gracious dream that must vanish with the 
morning. I thank you. 



THOMAS B. EEED 

AT THE DINNER TO SAMUEL L. CLEMENS (MARK TWAIN), 
NOVEMBER 10, 1900 

I THINK I realize more than most people the hope- 
lessness of the task which we have set before our- 
selves to-night. We have come here for the purpose 
of saying to Mr, Clemens what we think about him, 
and expressing our appreciation of what he has done ; 
but we shall do nothing that will not seem to him abso- 
lutely inadequate. When we have got through he will 
go home to his couch, and there think over the invalu- 
able nature of the services which he has rendered to 
mankind, and will feel how inadequate has been our 
statement. Therefore, we must take a proper position 
upon this occasion. We must so act toward him that he 
will say that ''the boys meant well, and if they had 
known exactly what they were talking about they 
w^ould have stated the thing in a proper and adequate 
form"; and he will forgive us and add the necessary 
percentage to bring it up to the par of his ideas. 

I am afraid that some of the things that I shall say 
will require the percentage that is to be added to be con- 
siderably increased, because I am going to wreak upon 
him, not a lifelong feeling, but a feeling extending over 
more than seven years, for something that he said 
about me. 

380 



THOMAS B. REED 381 

He came over to Washington with a lot of writers 
and other literary fellows who were generally much 
puffed out about themselves. They came over there 
for the purpose of getting what they thought was their 
property, and I had occasion to explain to him that he 
was then, while I was talking with him, sitting under 
the effulgence of the political intellects which compre- 
hend all things. And what we intended was to give 
him some portion of his property— that portion which 
seemed to us to be for the good of mankind that he 
should have. I explained to him at length that while 
he seemed to himself to be a ''good man," yet in real- 
ity, compared with us, he was utterly incapable of self- 
government, and that what we intended to do with him 
was to benevolently assimilate most of his property. 
I am bound to say that, notwithstanding all my vio- 
lence, he apparently behaved with considerable good- 
ness of disposition. He did n't say a word to me, but 
he afterward went about, as I have been informed, and 
explained to his friends the various things that he 
would have said to me if he had n't been scared. Now, 
these speeches which have been reported to me have 
rankled in my mind, and I have always felt, when an 
opportunity occurred and he did n't have a chance to 
reply, that I would say over some things to him. 

One thing I want to comment upon a bit, and that 
is in one of his writings he says— he actually had the 
face to say— that he was named for the prophet Samuel. 
I have read the succinct statement which he made of 
this with a great deal of care. He says that he remem- 
bers he was lying in his cradle and looking at the clock 
and thinking that in five minutes he would be a day 



382 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

old, and that he heard his venerated father proposing 
to his mother various names like Zerubbabel and Habak- 
kuk, either of which in my judgment would have been 
perfectly appropriate, and that finally his father sug- 
gested the name Samuel, and thereupon, gathering his 
tiny shoes in his hand, he arose on the edge of the 
cradle and said, ' ' Father, I cannot be named Samuel, ' ' 
and he said, ''Why not?" and he answered, ''Because 
Samuel had to be called by the Lord twice before he 
would come. " " Then, ' ' said he, "I stepped forth from 
the cradle, and twenty-four hours after that my father 
overtook me, and I acquired the name of Samuel and a 
sound thrashing." Now, I want to say to you that I 
believe implicitly the statement that at the age of one 
day he climbed from the cradle and started forth, and 
kept it up for twenty-four hours, but I don't believe 
the story about the old gentleman's overtaking him; 
because from the very nature of things nobody ever 
overtook him in this world. On general principles, 
also, I repudiate the story. I believe that if he and 
the prophet Samuel were to meet neither would recog- 
nize the other, unless the oriental style of garment be- 
trayed Samuel the elder to Samuel the younger. 

But I feel very much interested in Mr. Clemens, 
because he is to me the greatest example of the system 
of education of which I am perhaps the only able-bodied 
advocate, and that is the Wellerian System of Educa- 
tion. What is that ? you ignorantly ask. You will find 
it in the first interview which Pickwick had with the 
father of Samuel Weller, for whom perhaps our friend 
is more likely to have been named than for the Bible 
Samuel. The first time they met the old man Weller 



THOMAS B. REED 383 

said to Pickwick, ''I hope that my son satisfies you," 
and he said, ''Yes, he does." And says he, "I hope 
so," and he says, ''I have given him the best educa- 
tion anybody ever had. I let him loose in the streets 
of London, young, to shift for himself," and every- 
body knows how thoroughly educated a man Samuel 
"Weller was. When our friend says, ''next to being 
born in Missouri"— he makes an awful bad start; I 
don't believe that any person having full possession of 
his senses would have permitted himself to have been 
born in Missouri, because it is a hot country— too sug- 
gestive—it is not pleasant ; the place to have been born 
in was the State of Maine— no other place in the world. 
But I tell you, notwithstanding all this, he had the best 
education there ever was. Why, he began life on the 
Mississippi Eiver in a pilot-house. That was a great 
life ! You cannot appreciate the luxury and delight 
I had in London in 1883 in picking up his book "On 
the Mississippi. ' ' Oh, it ^s a great old life on that big 
river ; I tell you there is no place where language flows 
as it does there, the wealth of language there is supe- 
rior—am I not telling the truth? (Mark Twain: 
"Yes, sir.")— is superior to the flood of the Missis- 
sippi at the time when he and I were there. I remem- 
ber the magnificent picture of the full river— what a 
gorgeous freedom from limitation was there. What 
a vocabulary old Sam Tubbs had, and how gener- 
ous he was with it! I never shall forget his descrip- 
tion of the time General EUet went down the Mis- 
souri to Yicksburg and stuck the noses of his gunboats 
up against the river bank ; I would n't like to repeat it; 
I don 't think it would suit even this assembly. I don 't 



384 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

Imow that it was accurate; I don't know that he told 
the truth, but I do know that the thing was picturesque 
beyond all human description, and whenever you are 
reading Mark Twain just remember what a wealth of 
vocabulary he had a chance to have recourse to in his 
early life. He not only graduated from that college, 
but he went to a law school, as it were, and that was at 
Washoe, where nothing was good, but everything was 
beautifully descriptive and touching. At that time, 
when he was there, I came very near going to Washoe, 
but I am sorry to say that I did not go, and therefore 
my education lacks very much of what he has had ; but 
he has had it, and he stands to-day the best represen- 
tative of that system of education, which I believe is 
the soundest in the world. I owe too many hours of 
pleasure not to be glad to be here and join you in your 
most vociferous welcome. 



CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 

AT THE DINNER TO SAMUEL L. CLEMENS (MARK TWAIN), 
NOVEMBER 10, 1900 

OUR friend Mark Twain owes his distinction among 
us and all over the world to that faculty which is 
so much abused in business and in politics— the faculty 
of humor. Every man who has made any real success 
in business has been handicapped if he was a joker, 
and many a man who has made a success of politics 
has found a barrier raised because people would not 
take him as a serious person. I never yet met a man 
who had made a fortune who could tell a story or get 
off a witticism worth listening to. I never yet saw a 
man who could make a million dollars a year who, on 
any occasion, whether it was a marriage or a funeral, 
would not get on to the ''shop" in five minutes, be- 
cause no man can make a million dollars if he is funny. 
(I have found that out.) There is no fun in a million 
—it 's a serious business. Now, that is nothing against 
the million dollars or the man who makes it. It only 
shows the different avenues in life. Some of us choose 
one, some of us take another. 

In the "Evening Post" of to-night, that journal 
which does so much on Saturday evening, when it 
comments on any one, to promote that feeling of grace- 
ful resignation which prepares him for to-morrow, 

25 385 



386 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

there is a leading article on the two most distinguished 
living citizens of America ; one recently died— Bryan— 
and myself. Of the late lamented Bryan it remarks 
(but I am not responsible for what I quote) that he 
lost the opportunity to be President, and that he never 
will be President, because in his speeches he lowered 
himself to the average of the common people, and the 
common people look for a President to a man who is 
above their average. And then it says: ''So far as 
Depew is concerned, no man who jests will ever be 
President of the United States." Now, having fol- 
lowed Bryan through his canvass, I never expected to 
be bracketed with him, but if his chances and mine are 
the same I will take them. 

I believe there is a great deal of truth in the criti- 
cism of the "Evening Post." When a man has once 
got to be President of the United States, if he is a 
raconteur of rare merit, if he is a mt, if he is a hu- 
morist, or has genius in any line of that sort, it adds 
enormously to his distinction, but he will never get 
there if it is known beforehand. Abraham Lincoln 
was almost unknown outside of the State of Illinois 
when he ran for President. We knew of him only by 
an elaborate address which he made here and which 
had in it not a ray of humor. When he got to be 
President, what he wanted the plain people to know 
he illustrated by humor, and he became our greatest 
factor in American politics. I never shall forget, as 
a young man, a young Secretary of State, being clos- 
eted with him. When we had turned everybody out 
he lay down on the lounge, and, gathering those long 
legs of his in his arms and slowly rocking back and 



CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 387 

forth, he told me twelve stories, none of which I will 
repeat here to-night, but each having a marvelous ap- 
plication, and then said, in that deep cadence of his, 
''Depew, I know that they say that I lower the dig- 
nity of the presidential office and that I do not rise to 
the heights that the people expect from the great posi- 
tion which I occupy; but I have found, young man, 
I have found, in the course of a long and varied expe- 
rience, that plain people, plain people, take them as 
they run, are more easily influenced through the me- 
dium of a broad and humorous illustration than in 
any other way, and what the hypercritical few may 
say I don't care." That 's Lincoln's manner, and 
that 's Lincoln's method. Now, we have a brilliant 
idea of what is necessary to be President of the United 
States, and what is necessary to occupy a place in an 
impressive manner in the hearts and minds of every- 
body who thinks well and readily in the messages of 
the Presidents of the United States, which have been 
advertised so widely through the editorial columns of 
the New York "Sun" and in the works of Oliver "Wen- 
dell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, and Mark Twain— 
who would exchange the one for the other? I would 
rather be one of those who will be read one hundred 
years from now than to be any one of the Polks or 
Pierces or Buchanans or any of them that can be 
mentioned in an evening like this. If I followed the 
rule and advice of the * ' Evening Post, ' ' and was a can- 
didate, which I am not and never shall be, for Presi- 
dent of the United States— standing here to-night as a 
senator of New York, looking forward to 1904, I would 
not make the speech I am making now ; I should say : 



388 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Lotos Club : It 
affords me great pleasure to be present in a gathering 
which I understand comprises so much of the journal- 
istic, the artistic, and the Bohemian element of our 
great American life. I am pleased that you have hon- 
ored me with an invitation to join with you in a just 
tribute to our guest. I think that he illustrates in his 
career the manhood and principles of American lib- 
erty. He began life, if I understand rightly his ori- 
gin, in a very humble sphere ; but this has been charac- 
teristic of all men who have risen to political distinc- 
tion in our great and glorious country. He became 
at one time connected with that element of American 
progress and development known as the transportation 
interests of the country. If he had continued in that 
useful sphere he might at some time have reached the 
lofty position of president of one of the great carrying 
companies of the country, whether on the rail or on 
the water. He began, it is true, in a humble capacity, 
but I have it from members of Congress whom I have 
met who knew him then that as pilot of a steamboat 
on the Mississippi Eiver he had the respect of the 
passengers and the confidence of the owners of the 
boat. I am not sure— I am not sure, and still— some 
gentlemen may disagree with me, and if they do I bow 
with the greatest respect to their judgment— I am not 
sure but that he made a mistake when he left this 
great and useful part of our American progress and 
development for the paths of literature. His genius 
is unique, it is alone to himself, and it has secured him 
recognition on both sides of the Atlantic, and for that, 
as an American citizen, I thank him. But stiU I think 



CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 389 

that if he had abandoned the humorous, the light, 
which contributes in our moments of restfulness to our 
pleasure, and taken to the higher walks of literature, 
as did Plato and Aristotle, I am not sure but he would 
have won a distinction much greater than this evanes- 
cent form which has given us so much pleasure, and 
would have added so much to his fame. 

That 's the candidate for President, which I am not. 
I trust the ''Evening Post" will at least accord me the 
credit of being equal to the job if I should undertake 
it. Now, Mark Twain showed his distinguishing char- 
acteristic, which is a knowledge of human nature, which 
is when you are on a public platform like this where 
you want people to be agreeable and make people 
happy, by rubbing them up and then rubbing them 
down, when he praised Reed, and then the Cuban War, 
and then, advancing to the Filipinos, he struck Reed 
in the solar plexus. I remember an English gentle- 
man, not John Hare, coming to my house to dine one 
night, and he said on the way over, ' ' I met a singular 
countryman of yours, who was not as acute as I under- 
stand you all are over here." Then he said: ''You 
charge us with being obtuse, but really I think that 
some of your countrymen are direct descendants from 
the kind of Englishmen you are constantly making fun 
of." I asked him, "How 's that?" and he said: 
"There was a man on the steamer, sat at my table, 
rather an agreeable man, an odd-looking person, and I 
said to him one day, 'You have been in England?' and 
he said, 'Several times; was in London this year; 
spent six weeks there,' and I asked him, 'Did you go 
to Westminster Abbey?' and he said, 'No, to the Lang- 

25* 



390 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

ham.' " And, said he, ''I had to explain to him that 
Westminster Abbey was n't a hotel." Then I said, 
^'What was this man's name?" and he said, "Clemens 
—Samuel L. Clemens." ''Why, Great Scott, man," I 
said, 'Hhat 's Mark Twain!" ''What! Mark Twain, 
the great humorist?" I said, "Yes, the greatest in the 
world," and he said, "That 's the best joke I ever 
heard in my life." You know the moment I men- 
tioned his name it created a crevasse in his cranium. 

Some years ago I was at Homburg, where Mark 
Twain was masquerading as a tramp abroad. I made 
known his presence to some of the royalties and aris- 
tocrats who were congregated there. The next morn- 
ing Mark was introduced to His Koyal Highness the 
Prince of Wales, always very agreeable and charming 
to Americans, and while his walk at Homburg is usu- 
ally about fifteen minutes, Mark made himself so agree- 
able during the whole length of the tour that the royal 
walk extended to an hour and a half, and the next 
night I met Mark at the royal table. A few nights 
before I had been dining there, and in the discursive 
and extensive incidents of table life at Homburg, being 
called upon for a story, I unearthed a weird story 
which I had created and thought it might go in an 
English crowd. But it did n't. But two nights after- 
ward, when Mark was there, and as the situation be- 
came more human and companionable, he started in 
to enliven the table himself, and he told the same story. 
It was received with such hilarity and bursts of laugh- 
ter and applause that it brought Mark out as "the 
only humorist in the world, and the best story-teller," 
and he "never was so brilliant," and the effect has 



CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 391 

been that I can't go to England now and tell a story 
without their saying, ''That 's one of Mark Twain's." 
Well, my friends, those are not the only occasions 
upon which Mark and I have met. A few years ago 
I met him at the dinner in London that Mr. Hare 
spoke of. Pinero was there with an elaborate essay 
on the drama, and he sat alongside of me. Well, Mark 
got up and responded to the drama, and delivered one 
of the most unique, picturesque, and graphic descrip- 
tions I ever heard in my life of the eccentricities of his 
Newfoundland dog. Pinero 's manuscript faded page 
by page as the dog pranced. And at that time Mark 
Twain was not himself. He was laboring under a 
gigantic load of debt. He was resisting it as best he 
could, and as a man of grit and a man of humor only 
can resist a catastrophe like that. I don't care what 
misfortunes may come to a man; I don't care what 
sorrows may fall upon him— there is nothing that 
presses him and crushes him like an apparently inex- 
tricable load of debt. Members of his family whom 
he deeply loves may drop away, and the sorrow of it 
may be just as deep as the tenderest heart and the 
most marvelous affection can picture, but that can be 
met ; there are solutions for it, and if he is a Christian 
there is the hope of meeting in the other world; but 
when a load of debt comes from no fault of your own, 
and it presses you down, I know of nothing equal to 
that. I have been there myself. So I knew what 
Mark felt that night. I knew that the whole world 
knew it and was sympathizing. I knew that the Lon- 
don papers were full of it, and were saying, ''Let us 
bear your burdens"; that the creditors were extending 



392 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

to him their full forgiveness of what he owed; and I 
saw beneath this crushing of genius the determination 
to surmount it. "When I met him next it was last year 
in London; we had heard of him in the meantime in 
Australia, in Van Diemen's Land, in Victoria, and all 
over the interesting parts of the earth, lecturing here, 
speaking there, received everywhere by English-speak- 
ing people with the gratitude of English-speaking peo- 
ple because he made them laugh, laugh in their sor- 
rows, laugh in their pleasures, laugh in their homes, 
until he is a household memory as well as a household 
member of every English-speaking family this world 
over. When I met him again it was the old Mark 
Twain that we have here to-night— sorrow gone, de- 
pression gone, all that crushing, all that tremendous 
tragedy gone ; the genius that had broken through and 
rescued him was making him himself again. Out of 
all those years of darkness had come here a novel, and 
there a story, and out of it all had come that best book 
of fiction and the historical novel of this generation, 
that most picturesque character— we have her spirit 
and her life, we never knew what she did or what she 
was until Mark Twain wrote about her— Joan of Arc. 
Now, the century opened with a tragedy just like that 
of Mark Twain's; the Wizard of the North, the great- 
est genius of English literature, Sir Walter Scott, 
found himself crushed under a similar load of debt 
and he worked out of it, and in working out of it gave 
to the world those marvelous ' ' Waverley Novels. ' ' That 
was at the beginning of the century ; and the English- 
speaking races and the literary men of all races every- 
where have never supposed that it could be repeated. 



CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 393 

But at the close of the century another man, in an- 
other country, laboring under a similar misfortune, 
but with a like world-wide fame, met the same crisis, 
met it in the same way and with the same genius and 
Avith the same courage; and while Walter Scott died 
under the burden of grief and labor, thank God Mark 
Twain, having redeemed his credit and redeemed the 
honor of his life by this supreme exertion, stands with 
us to-day just as fresh and just as young, and with 
just as beautiful years before him as before the tragedy 
came. It is the difference between the old world and 
the new, the difference between the first of the century 
and the end of the century; it is the difference be- 
tween hope and opportunity, and its best illustration 
is because with tragedy is coupled humor, that he is 
our guest at dinner. 



WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS 

AT THE DINNER TO SAMUEL L. CLEMENS (MARK TWAIN), 
NOVEMBER 10, 1900 

IF you meet a humorist on his own ground the 
chances are that you will be thrown down. Unless 
you are a very great joker, he will probably out joke 
you, or, if he does n't, people will think he does, which 
is quite as bad. The only way is to take him seriously, 
and then if you praise him he will be apt to think you 
are in earnest. That is why I am going to be serious 
in the very little I have to say about our great and good 
friend to-night, though we have now arrived at that 
happy stage of a complimentary dinner when the guest, 
unless he is a person of extraordinary perspicacity, 
does not know whether you are praising him or not. 
He is so thickly buttered by this time that he thinks 
everything offered him is butter, and in a lordly dish. 
If you get out your little hammer and drive your little 
nail into his skull, he smiles blandly when it reaches his 
gray matter, and comes round, at the end of the dinner, 
with the head of the nail sticking out, to say, '* Thank 
you, old fellow, that was very nice of you ; I hope you 
won 't have it too much on your conscience. ' ' 

Like every one else here, I am glad to have Mr. 
Clemens among us again, because, for one thing, I 
hated to see him having such a good time abroad. We 

394 



WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS 395 

always suspect a fellow-citizen who has a good time 
abroad; we are afraid that there must be something 
wrong about him. We feel that he never could have 
been what we thought him if other people think so too. 
We are jealous of his fame if it is universal ; we should 
have liked to keep it to ourselves. Many a time, in the 
course of the last nine years, my heart has been sad- 
dened by the acceptance of our friend in France, Ger- 
many, Austria, and England as one of the first humor- 
ists of all times, and I have done what little I could to 
set the matter right among those who loved him as I did 
by whispering around that they were overdoing it. 
But now that we have got him back I am not so sure 
that they were overdoing it. At any rate, I wish to 
lift my voice in welcoming him home, and to be one of 
the very first publicly to announce that I forgive him. 
I realize that he was not to blame because other peo- 
ples have appreciated him in their poor, unintelligent 
way, and told him so in languages which are difficult for 
any true American to understand. We ought to forgive 
him in our own interest, if for no other reason, for no 
one else has been more fully in the joke of us, or known 
better how to interpret us to ourselves ; and at no other 
period of our national life have we been a greater joke 
or more needed interpretation. He has probably ar- 
rived by a happy instinct to tell us just what we mean, 
and to declare how about it, when we are ourselves 
most in the dark. He is, at any rate, a humorist of 
continental dimensions, and he could not be the great 
humorist he is without being vastly better— if there is 
anything better ; if it is really better to be a sagacious 
reader of contemporary history, a generous and com- 



396 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

passionate observer of one's kind, a philosopher with- 
out theory, a poet whose broad-winged imagination 
transcends the bounds of verse. Perhaps it takes all 
these to make up the sum of a great humorist. At 
least we find them all summed up in the humorist whom 
we amusingly suppose ourselves to be honoring to- 
night, when he is so obviously honoring us. Why, in 
a manner, he has invented us, and more than any other 
man has made us the component parts of the great 
American joke which we all realize ourselves to be 
when we are serious. More than any other he has dis- 
covered us to ourselves, he has determined our modern 
mental attitude, fixed our point of view, and he could 
not have done this without being vitally of the material 
he worked in. He has invented us, but then we in- 
vented him, to begin with, and that is where I think 
we have reason to be proud. Before us no people had 
a humorist with nothing cruel but everything kindly 
in his smile, who never laughed with the strong against 
the weak, or found anything droll in suffering or de- 
formity. When we look back over literature, and see 
what savage and stupid and pitiless things have passed 
for humor, and then open his page, we seem not only 
to have invented the only true humorist, but to have 
invented humor itself. We do not know by what mys- 
tery his talent sprang up from our soil and flowered in 
our air, but we know that no such talent has been 
known to any other; and if we set any bounds to our 
joy in him it must be from that innate American mod- 
esty, not always perceptible to the alien eye, which for- 
bids us to keep throwing bouquets at ourselves. 



ST. CLAIR MoKELWAY 

AT THE DINNER TO SAMUEL L. CLEMENS (MARK TWAIN), 
NOVEMBER 10, 1900 

A FEW minutes ago a Reed shaken by the wind un- 
dertook to declare that Missouri merit was out- 
classed by constant looking for the Maine chance. I 
leave him to the tender mercies of Mark Twain, who 
is preparing his views of his intimate enemies— to be 
published an hundred years hence ! They will be read 
with intense interest by the successors of the present 
members of the Lotos Club. Now, if I might for a 
moment use metaphor as a minister to motive, I would 
say that some years ago we met here sympathetically 
to hold up Mark Twain's hands. Now we all feel like 
holding up our own in congratulation of him and of 
ourselves. Cf him because his warfare is accomplished. 
Of ourselves because he has returned to our company. 
If it was a pleasure to know him then, it is a privilege 
and an honor to know him now. He has fought the 
good fight. He has kept the faith. He is ready to 
be offered up, but we are not ready to have him offered 
up. For we want the Indian summer of his life to be 
long, and that to be followed by a genial winter, which, 
if it be as frosty as his hair, shall also be as kindly as 
his heart. 

He has enough excess and versatility of ability to 

397 



398 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

be a genius. He has enough quality and quantity of 
virtues to be a saint. But he has honorably trans- 
muted his genius into work, whereby it has been 
brought into relations with literature and with life. 
And he has preferred warm fellowship to cold perfec- 
tion, so that sinners love him and saints are content to 
wait for him. May they wait long ! 

I think he is entitled to be regarded as the Dean of 
America's humor; that he is entitled to the distinction 
of being the greatest humorist this nation ever had. 
I say this with a fair knowledge of the chiefs of the 
entire corps, from Francis Hopkinson and the author 
of ''Hasty Pudding" down to Bill Nye and Dooley. 
None of them would I depreciate. I would greatly 
prefer to honor and hail them all for the singular fit- 
ness of their gifts to the needs of the nation in their 
times. Hopkinson and Joel Barlow lightened the woes 
of the Revolution by the touch of nature which makes 
the whole world grin. Seba Smith relieved the Yankee 
tension under the impact of Jacksonian roughness by 
tickling its ribs with a quill. Lieutenant Derby turned 
the searchlight of fun on the stiff formalities of army 
posts, on the raw conditions of alkali journalism, and 
on the solemn humbugs of frontier politics. James 
Russell Lowell used dialect for dynamite to blow the 
front off hypocrisy, or to shatter the cotton commer- 
cialism in which the New England conscience was en- 
cysted. Robert H. Newell, mirthmaker and mystic, 
satirized military ignorance and pinchbeck bluster to 
an immortality of contempt. Bret Harte in verse and 
story touched the parallels of tragedy and of comedy, 
of pathos, of bathos, and of humor, which love of life 



ST. CLAIR McKELWAY 399 

and lust of gold opened up amid the unapprehended 
grandeur and the coveted treasures of primeval nature. 
Charles F. Browne made Artemus Ward as well known 
as Abraham Lincoln in the time the two divided the 
attention of the world. Bill Nye singed the shams of 
his day, and Dooley dissects for ''Hinnisy" the shams 
of our own. Nor should we forget Eugene Field, the 
beatifier of childhood, or Joel Chandler Harris, the 
fabulist of the plantation, or Ruth McEnery Stuart, 
the coronal singer of the joys and hopes, the loves and 
the dreams, of the images of Grod in ebony in the old 
South, ere it leaped and hardened to the new. 

To these love and honor. But to this man honor's 
crown of honor, for he has made a mark none of the 
others has reached. Few of them have diversified the 
delights to be drawn from our fugitive humor. They 
have, as humorists, in distinction to the work of moral- 
ists, novelists, orators, and poets, in which the rarest 
among them shine, they have as humorists, in the main, 
worked a single vein. And some of them were humor- 
ists for a purpose, a dreary grind that, and some of 
them were only humorists for a period as well as for a 
purpose. The purpose served, the period passed, the 
humor that was of their life a thing apart ceased. 
'T is Clemens 's whole existence! 

As Bacon made all learning his province, so Mark 
Twain has made all life and history his quarry, from 
the ^'Jumping Frog" to "The Yankee at Arthur's 
Court"; from the incrusted petrifaction that died of 
protracted exposure to the present parliament of Aus- 
tria; from the grave of Adam to the mysteries of the 
Adamless Eden known as the League of Professional 



400 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

AYomen; from Mulberry Sellers to Joan of Arc, and 
from Edward the Sixth to "Puddin'head Wilson," who 
wanted to kill his half of a deathless dog. 

Nevada is forgiven its decay because he flashed the 
oddities of its zenith life on pages that endure. Cali- 
fornia is worth more than its gold, because he showed 
to men the heart under its swagger. He annexed the 
Sandwich Islands to the fun of the nation long before 
they were put under its flag. Because of him the Mis- 
souri and the Mississippi go now unvexed to the sea, for 
they ripple with laughter as they recall Tom Sawyer, 
Huckleberry Finn, poor Jim, and the Duke. Europe, 
Asia Minor, and Palestine are open doors to the world, 
thanks to this pilgrim's progress with his "Innocents 
Abroad." Purity, piety, and pity shine out from 
' ' Prince and Pauper ' ' like the eyes of a wondering deer 
on a torch-lighted night from a wooded fringe of moun- 
tain and of lake. 

But enough of what I fear is already too much. In 
expressing my debt to him I hope I express somewhat, 
at least, of yours. I cannot repay him in kind any 
more than I could rival him. None of us can. But 
we can render to him a return he would like. With 
him we can get on our way to reality and burn off 
pretense as acid eats its way to the denuded plate of 
the engraver. We can strip the veneer of convention 
from style and strengthen our thought in his Anglo- 
Saxon well of English undefiled. We can drop seem- 
ing for sincerity. We can be relentless toward hypoc- 
risy and tender to humanity. We can rejoice in the 
love of laughter, without ever once letting it lead us to 
libertinism of fancy. We can reach through humor the 



ST. CLAIR McKELWAY 401 

heart of man. We can make exaggeration the scourge 
of meanness and the magnifier of truth on the broad 
screen of life. By study of him the nothing new under 
the sun can be made fresh and fragrant, by the su- 
preme art of putting things. Though none of us can 
handle his wand, all of us can be transformed by it 
into something higher and finer than our dull selves. 
That is our delight, that is our debt, both due to him, 
and long may he remain with us to brighten, to broaden, 
and to better our souls with the magic mirth and with 
the mirthful magic of his incomparable spell. 



26 



WU TING FANO 

(CHINESE MINISTER) 
AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, DECEMBER 15, 1900 

I AM doubly sensible of the honor you have done me 
to-night in the shape of this splendid banquet, and 
I am grateful for the cordial manner in which you have 
received the kind words spoken of me by the president. 
I rejoiced to hear the cheers in which you expressed 
yourselves a-s to this toast in my honor, because they 
were not only complimentary to me, but because I was 
convinced that in those cheers there rang the senti- 
ments of good will toward my country. 

Gentlemen, this is an unexpected honor, and I shall 
never, as long as I live, forget this memorable occasion. 
When the vice-president of this club and the chairman 
of the committee came the other day to Washington to 
tender me this invitation, I did not understand the rea- 
son of the honor tendered to me ; but when I heard the 
name of this club I gladly accepted, because I thought 
that there was a connecting link between it and my- 
self. Of all the plants in China, the lotos is the one 
we appreciate on account of its purity. I asked a gen- 
tleman sitting next to me this evening why that name 
was chosen for this club. He was good enough to ex- 
plain to me that Lotos is a place for recreation, for 
rest; and as the club is intended as a place for gen- 

402 



WU TING FANG 403 

tlemen to come and rest it is an appropriate name. I 
bow to his word, and of course he knows better than I 
do, but I will say this, that in China, as I have just 
said, the lotos is a flower that we appreciate because 
we not only eat it, but if you dip it into water it will 
straighten up again, the mud does not stick to it, and 
it is as fresh and clean as ever. 

For this reason, gentlemen, we call the lotos a supe- 
rior one among the plants; and in China the learned 
men, the good men, and the men of science we generally 
call "Lotos," for that reason; and associations are 
formed under that name. So, therefore, gentlemen, 
you understand the reasons for my accepting this invi- 
tation, because I wish to be in your company, by dining 
with the superior men of the United States. 

Your president has been good enough to pay me a 
flattering compliment in referring to the crisis which 
occurred last summer. I must say that it was a sum- 
mer full of anxiety and worry to me, and for many a 
day I could hardly sleep; but then it was my duty; 
I did no more than my duty to my government and my 
country. The time was important, and it was necessary 
for me to take some step to prevent the crisis, if possible, 
from coming on. I found that at that time the people 
of this country, and also all the people in Europe, were 
so excited that they would believe anything that was 
telegraphed from the East, especially from my coun- 
try; and all I could do wa^ to urge that the people of 
this country should not hastily believe what was tele- 
graphed until authentic news could come. And it was 
gratifying to me to find that the administration and 
the officials of this country, and the press and the 



404 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

people generally, were moderate and conservative in 
their views ; and when I was fortunate enough to obtain 
the first news from Pekin, from Mr. Conger, and lay it 
before the State Department, it was gratifying to me 
that, although people in Europe generally considered 
it a forgery, the people of this country and the offi- 
cials and the press generally believed it was true. But 
I was very sorry to find that the press in Europe gen- 
erally, and the people in Europe, all declared that it 
was a fabrication on my part or on the part of my gov- 
ernment, as if nobody Chinese was capable of telling a 
single truth. 

Gentlemen, from my boyhood I have learned in the 
classics of Confucius that in your dealings with others 
your words should be sincere. I can conscientiously 
say that I have always acted up to that injunction. It 
is sometimes said that a diplomatic representative is a 
gentleman sent to lie abroad for the good of his country. 
Perhaps that would do two or three centuries ago, but I 
firmly believe that diplomats as well as men in other 
professions should act straightforwardly and honestly, 
because while the use of falsehood may temporarily 
secure an advantage, sooner or later the truth will be 
found out, and the consequences would be very serious. 
So therefore I believe in the maxim ''Honesty is the 
best policy." I might compare the profession of a 
diplomat in a foreign country somewhat to that of a 
lawyer pleading a case before a court. It would not 
do for the lawyer in advocating the interest of his 
client to quote an obsolete law or statutes which have 
been repealed, or to distort facts with a view of de- 
ceiving the court and the jury. No respectable law- 



WU TING FANG 405 

yer, I am sure, would stoop to do such a thing. In 
saying this, gentlemen, I do not insinuate that the 
lawyers in this country are not honest. I believe 
they are all honest. I would be the last man to 
slander the legal profession, to which I have the 
honor to belong. So a diplomat, although he is 
acting for the interest of his country, should be 
straightforward and do his best, and while doing his 
best for the interests of his country he ought to be a 
gentleman and act honestly; but without a just tribu- 
nal, however able a lawyer may be, his case may be 
defeated; but in my case it is with gratitude and 
pleasure that I acknowledge that I have a fair and 
just tribunal before whom I plead the interests of my 
country. The potent, wise, and moderate policy of 
your government, and the fairness and straightfor- 
wardness of the administration, headed by your Presi- 
dent, assisted in a great measure by your Secretary 
of State— to them is due the credit, rather than to 
me, for what has been done in the last summer; and 
credit is also due to the press generally in this coun- 
try, which shapes'^public opinion, and to the peo- 
ple of this country, because as far as I can make out 
they have almost unanimously endorsed the humane 
and wise policy of the administration. Since the un- 
fortunate occurrence I have been receiving from day 
to day innumerable letters from persons, many of 
whom I have not the pleasure of knowing, expressing 
their sympathy for China. 

There is a saying in our classics that the people 
should be made to follow, but not be able to understand, 
the reason of things. But I may say, in the case of the 



406 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

American people, this maxim of Confucius is inap- 
plicable, because I find in every public question that 
the people are very intelligent and lovers of fair 
play. This indeed is a wonderful nation. Last 
Wednesday the city of Washington celebrated its cen- 
tennial, and I was fortunate enough to listen to the 
exercises at the Capitol, and among the public ad- 
dresses given by the congressmen and senators, there 
is one speech I will not forget. It is the speech of Sen- 
ator Daniel. In his opening address, if I remember 
rightly, he said that ancient history has no precedent 
for the United States of America, and modern history 
has no parallel. That is a grand expression, but it is 
nevertheless true. There is no ancient history for your 
great country, but your country has been making his- 
tory. American history dates from the life of Wash- 
ington, and is enriched by the noble achievements of 
Lincoln and Grant, and the many others whom it is 
needless for me to enumerate, and of whom you know 
more than I do. Coming to the present day, it is em- 
bellished by such household words as the names of Miles 
and Dewey, and last, but not the least, the name of 
William McKinley. Yes, your history is rapidly filling 
up with the noble deeds of your men. But we diplo- 
mats, we foreign diplomats, do not understand your 
politics. I am speaking of myself —perhaps I should be 
going too far thus to refer to my colleagues, who are 
more learned than I am; but, speaking for myself, I 
do not understand your politics. Your politics are too 
complicated for me. For instance, I have not been 
able to master the intricacies of "sixteen to one" and 
the "full dinner-pail." These things are too deep for 



WU TING FANG 407 

my dull understanding. But I understand this, which- 
ever political party may reign in the White House, the 
glory of the Stars and Stripes will not in any event 
grow dim. As long as you remain the people who 
form this administration, headed by that noble, hu- 
mane, and level-headed man who is now your President 
—I say as long as you have such men at the head of 
your government, your great nation will continue to 
command the respect of all the other nations of the 
world. 

Gentlemen, I will not occupy your time much longer, 
and in concluding I will say that Senator Daniel, in 
concluding his speech, expressed the hope that the city 
of Washington will be in course of time the capital of a 
universal republic. When I heard this I could not un- 
derstand, but when I came home I pondered over it, and 
I think I have found out his deep meaning. The 
meaning, if I am not mistaken, is this— that the posi- 
tion, the high position, and the just policy of your 
nation will be in course of time recognized and will pre- 
vail among all different nations, so that the city of 
Washington will become in the near future the seat of 
universal peace, justice, and truth. When that day 
comes, and I hope it will not be far distant, the supe- 
rior men of this country, of which the members of this 
club form an element, will have much to do, and will 
take a prominent part in bringing about that happy 
state of things. 

Gentlemen, I thank you for your courtesy and the 
honor you have done me. 



WAYNE McYEAGH 

AT THE DINNER TO WU TING FANQ, DECEMBER 15, 1900 

I AM bound to say to you that I think it is really 
the first time in my life I ever felt seriously em- 
barrassed after dinner. My theory of after-dinner 
speaking has been singular in one respect, I think. I 
never knew what I was to say until I was on my feet, 
and everybody was kind enough to forget what I had 
said as soon as I sat down. Indeed, I announced many 
years ago that I was utterly irresponsible, and I was 
proud of it, for anything I said after I sat down to 
dinner. Up to that time, I have notified gentlemen 
in both the warlike services, to whose representatives 
we have listened, that I was amenable to any code 
which existed among gentlemen, but that after I sat 
down to dinner I would accept no challenge from any- 
body. But to-night is a wholly different experience 
from any I have ever had; I have always believed in 
hilarity at a dinner-table and afterward. But we are 
met upon a very remarkable occasion, and confronted 
by a situation which to my mind does not quite lend 
itself to amusement. His Excellency, the Chinese min- 
ister, doubtless knows without my telling him that no 
matter how long he stays in this country— and we all 
hope he will stay very long— he will probably never 
receive a more genuine American compliment than he 

408 



WAYNE McVEAGH 409 

enjoys in being the guest of a thoroughly representa- 
tive American club. This is, gentlemen, a club in 
which nobody stands on anything except that on which 
Disraeli said he stood with pride when he stood for Par- 
liament—on his head. There are other associations of 
gentlemen selected for various social, political, and per- 
sonal reasons, but this club has always stood for the 
merit of the individual member, whether he was a 
struggling artist or a struggling author, whether he 
was a writer of editorials or in whatever department 
of human activity, even in that miserable profession to 
which I belong, and to which Mr. Wu belongs. If he 
was a straightforward, honorable, earnest, and striving 
man he was welcome to the Lotos Club, but not other- 
wise. (Addressing the Chinese minister:) So this is 
a very great compliment which you enjoy to-night. Of 
course (looking at Mr. Carnegie) in every club men 
get in who ought not to be there. There is a friend of 
mine of many, many years' standing of whom I would 
be unwilling to say an unkind word behind his back, 
but I confess I was struck with astonishment to find 
Andrew Carnegie here, and yet this club does not dis- 
dain poverty. But nobody is perfect in his calling. I 
heard once a very severe criticism passed upon General 
Miles as a soldier. Another soldier, and a competent 
judge of such matters, told me of a performance of 
Miles 's which he said was grossly improper. He said 
that Miles leaped his horse over some Confederate 
breastworks and engaged in a desperate hand-to-hand 
conflict with the enemy, which no general had a right 
to do. 

Well, now, as the gentleman who last addressed you 



410 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

with such force and directness said, we are, as Ameri- 
cans and, I think I may not irreverently say, as pro- 
fessing Christians, confronted with a situation which I 
am sure the guest of the evening will permit me to treat 
with absolute frankness. When I use the word Chris- 
tian I do not mean it to apply to the new sect which 
has so rapidly overspread the continent of Europe and 
has made considerable inroads in this country— the 
sect I call Mohammedan-Christians. We are con- 
fronted with this serious conflict of two diverse civili- 
zations, and while of course we are bound to treat the 
civilization of every other people with the respect we 
expect for our own, still the heart of this country has 
been pained, the heart of the world has been pained, by 
the misfortunes and the excesses which have happened 
in the country which His Excellency represents here. 
I have always held, and more than once expressed, the 
opinion that any independent nation had a perfect 
right to say to any other, '*We do not wish intercourse 
with you; we do not wish to receive your ministers; 
we do not wish to receive the missionaries of your 
faith; we do not wish to receive your merchants, '^ 
and if an independent nation, however small or weak, 
says that to any other, however powerful or strong, 
in my judgment she has a right to say it and to have 
her isolation respected. I do not believe I have any 
right to kill anybody to make him purchase my legal 
opinion. I do not believe, as a nation, we have any 
right to kill any other nation to make it buy our sur- 
plus products. Not even of steel, and that is one of the 
best of our surplus products. But if a nation, wisely 
or unwisely, says to us, ''We will accept your min- 



WAYNE McVEAGH 411 

ister; we will accept your missionaries; we will accept 
your merchants," then at the bar of nations, and 
nobody recognizes it more fully than His Excellency, 
she must be responsible for their safety. I wish we 
could ignore it, but we may not safely ignore it. We 
have not treated the Chinese well in this country. It 
is one of the blots on our national history that we have 
treated them badly, but I think that that is no excuse 
for their treating us badly on the other hand; and it 
was a painful necessity which obliged us to send our 
men and armed ships to rescue our own minister from 
the danger to which he was unfortunately exposed. 
We must not blink the facts, as they are; it does not 
do anybody any good to do so. We did encounter that 
necessity, and the only ray of hope that came to every 
American in that moment, in those long days of anx- 
iety, was the message His Excellency gave to us and the 
world that our minister was safe. I was in Europe at 
the time, and it was pitiful to witness the constant and 
universal denunciation of that statement as a falsehood. 
Nobody was willing to believe it, as he has said to- 
night. Knowing him as I did, I believed it, and told 
everybody who would listen to me that it would turn 
out to be true. Because I knew he was absolutely in- 
capable of telling a falsehood. 

And that was the first turn of the tide ; that message 
that he carried to Mr. Hay was the first ray of light 
which the Western nations saw in their embarrassment. 
We welcomed it and acted upon it, for which I am dou- 
bly proud, as an American. I only wish that the other 
nations of the world had done the same thing. And now 
that the legations are safe, what Christian peoples mean 



412 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

by these punitive expeditions I cannot imagine. The 
details of them from time to time make me sick at heart 
and ashamed of my religion. We have no right, gen- 
tlemen, no nation has any right, to be doing in China 
what the other nations of the world are doing to-day, 
and in my deliberate judgment, reading everything to 
which I have had access, and letters which have been 
published, I am afraid it will be proven that China at 
this hour has suffered injfinitely more, infinitely worse, 
at the hands of the Christian nations than we have all 
together suffered at their hands. But it is something 
of which we may be proud, as General Miles has said, 
that while the valor of the American soldier and the 
valor of the American sailor have remained untar- 
nished, owing to the wisdom of the government whose 
citizens we are, we have at least a record of which we 
have no reason to be ashamed. If there shall be a set- 
tlement creditable to civilization East and West of this 
appalling calamity it will be largely due to the initia- 
tive of our country, and to the wise, generous, and 
conservative action of our President and of our Sec- 
retary of State. 



FRANK E. LAWEENCE 

AT THE YULE-TIDE DINNER, JANUARY 5, 1901 

HAIL to the new century! No longer do we talk 
of years with their brief span. 

Who, said the ancients, having tasted nectar and 
ambrosia, would return to the food of earth ! 

Who, having seen a century, a whole hundred years, 
elbowed and jostled aside and made to take flight all 
in an instant, and disappear in outer darkness, can 
ever take thought to the passage of a single year! 
Henceforth we deal in centuries ! 

In the last century we were born ; in this century we 
shall die. Let us be happy ! 

The dead century brought us being and conscious- 
ness and memory. The living century will press to the 
lips of each of us the Lotos draught of forgetfulness, 
and we may not say it nay. Let us rejoice ! 

Who that watched the death of the century one hun- 
dred years ago could conceive the wonders or the splen- 
dors of its successor ! Who that during the past week 
has watched the birth of a new period can imagine its 
possible glories! Let us not try! 

Mere fleeting atoms as we are, whirled through space 
by time, hurled into life, and all across it, and through 
and out of it again, almost before we can pause for 

413 



414 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 

breath; let us not take ourselves too seriously. Let us 
be merry! 

As time goes on, as the young century climbs the hill 
toward its meridian, let us meet here as often as we 
may, broader in our friendships, more ready to lend a 
helping hand one to another ; and though we cannot be 
here to see another century, but must be content with 
a small part of that which has now begun to pass, let 
us yet hope that when another hundred years are gone 
there may be merry-makers here in our stead, to cele- 
brate the Yule-tide season as heartily, as happily, as 
.thankfully, and with as much reason for thankfulness, 
as we to-night. 



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